Dividend hikes and leaking numbers in focus for two of Britain’s largest water firms
Two of the UK’s largest water utility companies are expecting to see strong performances in a 2023 that was marred by sewage dumping and inflation-busting price hikes across the industry.
Today, Severn Trent and United Utilities both maintained their full-year guidance ahead of full-year reporting periods to come in May.
Analysts expect Severn Trent will collect a pre-tax profit of £238m for the fiscal year to March, last year, this hit £168m while 2022 was above £250m.
Last year was expected to be the firm’s largest ever year of capital investment, with a total outlay of £1bn planned.
United Utilities, meanwhile, said back in November that revenues will be £150m higher than last year’s £1.82bn and the firm plans to spend a total of £13.7bn within the five years, aimed at improving water and wastewater services, protecting and enhancing the environment, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
In its interim result statement in November, Severn Trent chief executive Liv Garfield commented that the company “was doing more than ever” through investment to protect local environments and plug leaks and blockages.
Both firms have raised dividends despite lower profits and debt rises, with United Utilities’ interim dividend rate per share sitting at 16.6p and United Utilities at 47.7p, raised up from 15.4p and 42.7p prior to the pair’s previous quarterly results.
United Utilities will report results on 16th May while Severn Trent’s fall on 22nd May.
Late last year, amongst host of industry fines, Ofwat said the company will be allowed to add £89m to the bills of its 4.6m customers from next year thanks to improving performance.
The UK’s water regulator is clamping down on the penalties for utility providers missing customer service targets.
At the start of this week, the body said The regulator revealed that from April, water companies could be fined up to a tenth of their turnover for poor customer service.
Yesterday, it was revealed that Thames Water expects more leakages than last year while its turnaround plan battles against London’s creaky infrastructure.