National Grid expects US business to lift second half performance
National Grid expects US companies to improve performance in the second half of the year
- It said it met its financial expectations for the first half of the year to September 30
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National Grid expects annual earnings per share to be weighed in the second half of the year, with the UK energy system operator confident it can meet full-year expectations.
The group, which also has an electricity and gas business in New York and Massachusetts, expects operating profit for its UK operations to be broadly evenly spread throughout the year, but for its US businesses to be more heavily weighted towards the second half.
National Grid expects 10 to 15 percent of operating profit from its New York operations to fall in the first half ended September 30, due to higher non-cash costs for environmental provisions.
The London-listed company said it met its financial expectations for the first half of the year to September 30
The company said in a statement: ‘For our UK regulated business, we expect contributions to operating profit to be broadly evenly distributed throughout the year.
‘For our US regulated activities, we expect contributions to become more significant towards the second half of the year.’
The group added that its New York operations are expected to deliver between 10 and 15 percent of full-year operating profit in the past six months, after being impacted by a non-cash impairment charge.
The company previously posted a profit for the year to March as the electricity distribution business it bought two years earlier grew strongly.
Underlying operating profit was up 15 percent to £4.6 billion, while reported pre-tax profits rose 4 percent to £3.6 billion.
In July, National Grid sold a further 20 percent stake in National Gas to its existing majority shareholders, a consortium of investors led by Australia’s Macquarie Asset Management.
The company said the sale of the shares would be on the same financial terms as when it sold a 60 percent stake to the consortium in January.
That deal implied an enterprise value of around £9.6 billion for the UK gas transmission and metering business.
National Grid shares rose 1.13 percent to 947.80p in afternoon trading on Thursday.
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