Ok is there a mutter from the gutter going about today or what?
Shares are now consolidated, payout deadline gone, no official
news......??????

(scratches head......)

Any clues among us beautiful BB'ers this afternoon?

..National Grid must 'sing for its supper' says Ofgem, as it cuts spending plans by £5bn

By Emily Gosden | Telegraph – 18 minutes ag

NG.L 682.50 -10.50

......
A row has broken out between National Grid (LSE: NG.L - news) and Ofgem over plans to transform the UK’s electricity and gas networks, after the energy regulator disallowed £5bn of proposed spending.

National Grid accused Ofgem of failing to “appropriately incentivise the essential investments necessary to provide safe, reliable networks for the UK consumer”.

But a defiant Ofgem chief executive, Alistair Buchanan, said National Grid must “sing for its supper”, criticising it for not “doing its homework properly” on the plans.

National Grid had argued for total expenditure of £33.5bn — in 2009-10 prices — over the eight years from 2013.

But Ofgem said the company could only spend up to £28.9bn, insisting parts of the proposals were unnecessary and others must be delivered more efficiently. It set the cost of equity below the level National Grid had requested.

Even to pay for Ofgem’s cut-down expenditure proposals for National Grid, and other regional gas distribution companies, average annual household bills will still rise by £7 next year and £15 by 2021.

The cuts Ofgem imposed included slashing National Grid’s proposed spending on moving electricity cables underground, from £1.1bn to £100m, as its analysis of what consumers were willing to pay was “not good enough”.

A £813m request for 20 new compressors to direct the flow of gas in its network was cut to £120m after the Environment Agency told Ofgem the supposed level of need was “nonsense”, Mr Buchanan said.

Ofgem will dock National Grid Gas £900,000 a year as penalty for shortcomings in its plans.

Some £5bn worth of proposals would only be approved if National Grid proved they were necessary in due course.

If National Grid has been “honest” in its plans, then Ofgem was unlikely to change its proposals before they are finalised in December, Mr Buchanan said.

“If they don’t like what we give them [then], they should go to the Competition Commission,” he said. But if National Grid now provided new information that justified changes, it might be penalised for failing to disclose that sooner, he warned.

National Grid shares fell 10½ to 682½p as City analysts said the proposals from Ofgem were harsher than had been expected.

Analyst Angelos Anastasiou at Investec (Frankfurt: A0J32R - news) said: "While there is still much debate to be had ahead of the Final Proposals, we reiterate our view that National Grid will probably require a capital raise by about 2015, and that a dividend cut next year is also likely."

But analysts at Liberum Capital said they believed the reduction in capital expenditure meant National Grid "should be able to sustain [its] dividend", but that the reduction "knocks off value as every £1 invested is worth £1.15 and therefore... knocks off 20p/share from our [price target

Obviously I wish I'd sold on Friday :-)

I will probably hold for now and see how the news is digested.

BTW - I prefer this take Nomura remains a buyer of National Grid

Morgan Stanley reiterates its Overweight stance TP reduced from 740p to 730p.

Looked at these but think that SVT are a better risk in this type of sector i.e. defensive at the moment.

HSBC Upgrades to Overweight TP raised from 740.00 to 770.00

Nicely off the 200 ma.

Interim Management Statement

Liberum Capital Upgrades Buy Old Tp 685.00 new Tp 730.00

Thankyou "skinny" for all your help.

You're welcome Baylis - I just post news/charts on shares that I follow/hold.

New 2year+ highs this morning.

£7.

HSBC upgrades to Overweight Tp increased from 770p to 790p.

Sparks fly again on National Grid amid takeover rumours

The powers that be in the City are adamant that there is a multi-billion-pound takeover bid being hatched in the utilities sector. Corporate financiers have apparently been busy burning the midnight oil for weeks in order to bring the deal to light before the end of the month.

All fingers yesterday were again pointed at National Grid. Shares of the operator of most of England’s energy pylons and pipelines touched 693p amid growing speculation that GE Capital, the financial services unit of US giant General Electric, and its advisors are working on a cash offer well north of £9 a share. The close was 2p easier at 691.5p.

The word is GE Capital wants to get its hands on National Grid’s American activities and would be a seller of its UK operations.

I did have a nibble in the end and have taken my profit today, Sell on the rumour.

Back in on Fri. and up already, nice little trading range developing here?

National Grid plc
Initial Proposals: consultation response

Today, National Grid has published its detailed responses to Ofgem's initial proposals for the UK electricity and gas transmission (RIIO-T1) and UK gas distribution (RIIO-GD1) network price controls.

The initial proposals are the first time that National Grid has had an opportunity to test Ofgem's evidence and analysis and as a result the responses are extensive and thorough. As previously stated, National Grid believes that the initial proposals as they stand give rise to a number of important issues which need to be resolved over the coming months to ensure a fair balance of risk and reward for investors and customers. National Grid is committed to working with Ofgem to deliver an affordable deal for consumers which will allow these networks to finance around £25bn of essential UK infrastructure investment.

Out again.

Light weight! :-)