Hints and tips:
...Rising inflation has pushed up financing costs as well as the price of energy, labour and chemicals. The companies are also under pressure to invest in tackling sewage overflows....
...The EA said its findings would inform the next “price review”, which sets out how much water companies can charge customers in the next five-year regulatory period from 2025....
...Yorkshire Water, for example, has argued that the regulator’s position was “borne out of an excessive focus on lowering bills and on lowering costs in the current price review period”....
...Water regulator Ofwat has warned of a “tough new regime” that will reduce the prices water companies can charge customers....
...It comes as the water industry prepares for its five-year price review in 2015....
...The FTSE 100 water provider, which serves 3.7m households and businesses across the Midlands and mid-Wales, said that the conditional proposal was “only a modest premium to the share price” before the consortium...
...[Clears throat] So, UK water companies are regulated by Ofwat, which sets price caps every five years, the last set being valid from 2010 to 2015....
...But severe drought and water use restrictions have reignited the debate over whether Ofwat’s policy of accepting large-scale water loss while allowing inflation-indexed price increases for customers is acceptable...
...This compares with longer term rates of c5-6% when Kelda was bought out in late 2007....
...Devon-born Mr Cox, who left AWG in March, oversaw a threefold increase in the group’s share price and eventually sold it to a consortium that included 3i in 2006....
...Analysts and investors in infrastructure companies were largely unconcerned by the proposed review, with share prices in the support service and water sectors outperforming the wider market....
...Just click on price information and you can get more details....
...Kelda’s share price rose almost 13% to £10.55 on news that the consortium were making an offer of £11.0065 a share, which marks the biggest one-day increase since March 2000....
...There is, of course, no certainty that a formal offer will materialise, Thursday’s statement having been triggered by the recent hike in Kelda’s share price....
...“Kelda doesn’t have any protection, unlike Yorkshire Water, so the credit quality of Kelda Group could fall significantly and that’s what’s driving the CDS price,” Marc Watton, utilities credit analyst at...
...Kelda’s share price rose almost 13 per cent to £10.55 on news that the consortium were making an offer of £11.0065 a share, which marks the biggest one-day increase since March 2000....
...But with the Goldman’s stamp of approval to certify that CMC is no turkey, employees would expect it to fetch an even richer price by then....
...The offer is a 17 per cent premium to the price at the close of business on November 21, before the takeover approach was announced. The shares rose 32p to £10.88 on Monday....
...The iTraxx Crossover index of mostly junk-rated corporate debt tightened 7bp to 343bp after closing on Thursday at 350, according to Deutsche Bank prices....
...Kelda Group, the owner of Yorkshire Water, was the standout feature, rising 1.6 per cent to 852p after Credit Suisse issued a “trading buy” recommendation to clients....
...Two of the biggest buy-outs since the start of the credit squeeze have been takeovers of UK infrastructure assets: the £4.2bn purchase of Southern Water in October and last month’s £3bn buy-out of Kelda,...
...Calculated using Tuesday night’s closing prices, changes to the FTSE indices take effect after the close of business on December 21....
...Utility stocks were also in demand after Kelda, the owner of Yorkshire Water, was forced to respond to a sharp rise in its share price by revealing an £11-a-share approach from a consortium of infrastructure...
...UBS cut its price target from 235p to 200p....
...Based on Tuesday’s closing price of 340½p, the company commanded a valuation of slightly more than £3bn....
International Edition