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United Utilities Group PLC on Thursday said profit multiplied in the half-year to September supported by strong sales growth. The Warrington, England-based water company said pretax profit more than doubled to £325.3 million in the six months ending September from £140.6 million the year prior. Operating profit increased 68% to £561.5 million from £333.4 million driven by higher allowed revenue and higher allocation of infrastructure renewals expenditure to capital expenditure offset by inflationary pressure on operating costs. Revenue increased 21% to £1.31 billion from £1.08 billion outstripping 17% growth in operating expenses to £486.4 million from £414.5 million. United Utilities said net regulatory capex jumped 22% to £568.5 million from £466.9 million. Earnings per share soared to 35.2 pence from 15.1p and the dividend was boosted 3.5% to 17.88p from 17.28p. The FTSE 100 listing said it is targeting to outperform the regulatory contract by at least 100 basis points and aiming to increase the dividend in line with consumer prices index including owner occupiers’ housing costs. For the full-year revenue is expected to increase to between £2.5 billion and £2.6 billion while underlying operating costs are expected to decrease. The firm expect full-year EPS to be around 100p and capital expenditure to be £1.5 billion. In the financial year to March 2025, United Utilities reported revenue of £2.15 billion, EPS of 38.8p and capital expenditure of £1.1 billion. Shares in United Utilities fell 1.0% to 1,189.00p each in London on Thursday morning. Copyright 2025 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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