Can anyone shed any light on the news release below for me?
I've read it twice and it's still as clear as mud!
Cheers!!

Northumbrian Water Group PLC
23 May 2005


Northumbrian Water Limited (the 'Company') - Cancellation of listing of the
repurchased 3.5 per cent. Perpetual Debenture Stock and the outstanding 4 per
cent. Perpetual Debenture Stock and 5 per cent. Perpetual Debenture Stock (the
'3.5 per cent. Perpetual Debenture Stock', '4 per cent. Perpetual Debenture
Stock' and the '5 per cent. Perpetual Debenture Stock') of the Company

The Company hereby announces that the listing on the Official List of the
repurchased 3.5 per cent. Perpetual Debenture Stock, the outstanding 4 per cent.
Perpetual Debenture Stock and 5 per cent. Perpetual Debenture Stock has been
cancelled with effect from 8 a.m. today.


Northumbrian Water Limited
(Incorporated and registered in England and Wales with registered number
2366703)
Registered Office:
Northumbria House, Abbey Road,
Pity Me, Durham DH1 5FJ

Dated: 23rd May 2005

It appears that yesterday was a poor time for HSBC to cut Northumbrian Water and Pennon to neutral from overweight. Someone also cut SVT as well..... all heralding the largest moves in the sector for some time!

Next ex-divi date is 11th Aug '10, 8.85p.

JP Morgans note out today:
We are downgrading Northumbrian Water (NWG) to Neutral from Overweight. The shares have performed strongly both absolute, and relative to the UK water sector over the last 3 months (+10.9% and +3.5% respectively). On our numbers NWG is now trading on a March 2012 premium to RAV of 8.8%, which is broadly in line with the UK water sector average of 9.7%.

Overall, we are becoming more cautious on the UK water sector. The sector has outperformed the market by 7.5% over the past three months and 4.0% over the past month. We think this has been driven by high UK inflation expectations and lower real gilt yields. However, real gilt yields have recently started to rise again (+8bps in the last week).
On a more fundamental basis we expect the newsflow from the upcoming results season (starting with Pennon tomorrow) to be quite challenging. We have downgraded our March 12 EPS estimates for the companies by between 4% (UU) and 9% (PNN) due to higher interest costs (reflecting the impact of higher RPI on the index-linked principal accrual). For PNN we have assumed 5m of additional costs due to the adoption of private sewers, in line with company guidance. However, the other water companies are yet to provide guidance and so the additional opex from the adoption of private sewers is not yet included in our 2011/12 estimates for them.