This is a general discussion thread for developments in the utilities & infrastructure sectors: gas, water & power.
PWC Utilities Global Survey 2009: http://www.pwc.com/Extweb/pwcpublications.nsf/docid/0E94A614DED328DB852575AD0070EDEF
Apparent bad news this week for water companies after Ofwat, the industry regulator, dismissed Britain’s 21 water companies' plans to raise prices by as much as 17% and demanded that they stop unnecessary spending on their sewerage and pipe networks and concentrate on offering consumers better value for money.
It is however perhaps not as bad as yesterday's selloff suggested...
Regina Finn, Ofwat’s chief, certainly seemed keen to adopt a pro-consumer stance yesterday, which should win her some approving headlines in today’s papers. But the final settlement may prove less tight. The return that Ofwat proposed that the companies should be allowed to make on their capital until 2015 was 4.5 per cent on a post-tax basis, at the low end of expectations but hardly disastrous. Yesterday’s announcement was only Ofwat’s opening gambit in a piece of regulatory theatre that has four months to run.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/columnists/article6725603.ece
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