Severn Trent uses cost savings to beat profit forecasts
11 April 2012
Utility giant Severn Trent managed to top its planned cost savings to beat City expectations with a 24% rise in underlying pre-tax profit.
Severn Trent, which supplies water and sewerage services to more than 3.7 million households, reported underlying pre-tax profit of £338.4 million for the year to the end of March. Analysts were expecting adjusted pre-tax profit of £324.1 million, up from £273.5 million last year.
"Planned cost savings were exceeded, while operational expenditure was lower year on year, against our target of stable costs, despite an increase in bad debt charges of £3.3 million," it said.
