Partner Article

Profits flowing at United Utilities

United Utilities, the water and wastewater company based in Warrington, has delivered an underlying profit for the year of £607m – an increase of 2.2% on the previous year.

At its annual general meeting in Manchester, the group revealed that current trading was in line with expectations, while revenues were higher, reflecting the regulated price increase for 2013/14.

It said capital investment in maintenance and upgrades has continued at high levels and is expected to be around £800m for 2013/14.

The group also took pride in having delivered a third year-on-year improvement in customer satisfaction, underpinned by good operational and environmental performance, remaining on course to deliver regulatory performance targets. While recognising it has more still to do to achieve all its aims, United Utilities sees considerable opportunities to deliver further improvements.

Net debt is slightly lower in the period from April to July 25, compared with the position at March 31. It also said Government changes to corporation tax levels should result in a deferred taxation credit of around £150m which will be recognised in the financial statements for the first half of 2013/14.

United Utilities has also confirmed that it is holding talks with shale gas explorer Cuadrilla. Should these prove fruitful, ultimately they could lead to the energy firm searching for gas on land held by the group. United Utilities owns 141,000 acres of land stretching from Merseyside and Cheshire up to Cumbria.

However, the group stresses that discussions with Cuadrilla are at a very early stage and at this point involve just “looking at potential opportunities to work together”.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Malia .