Pennon Group H1 24/25 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
November 27, 2024

There are 3 speakers on the call.

Operator

I'd now like to hand over to Susan Davy, CEO of Pennant Group to begin. Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Good morning, everyone. I'm Susan Davy, CEO of Pennant Group, and I'm joined by Laura Floweringue, our CFO. We're here today in our instant room in Devon. Laura and I are pleased to take you through the results and highlights of Pennant's 2024, 5 half year. And we look forward to answering any questions at the Q and A session at 8:45 this morning.

Speaker 1

It's been a very busy half year operationally and as we write 5 for our new business, Palms K8. I can't reflect on this half year without talking about the incident in Brixton. For 8 weeks in the summer, we worked tirelessly to return safe clean drinking water to the people and businesses in and around Brixton and Devon. Over 800 brilliant colleagues and supply chain partners supported customers as we flushed 30 kilometers of the network 27 times and installed UV and filtration equipment to ensure the supply to be stored as quickly and as safely as possible. I'd really like to thank customers for their incredible patience, but also their kindness colleagues who are working on the ground at all hours.

Speaker 1

Alongside the Brixton event, colleagues have been focused on tackling pollutions and the issues of storm overflows. With rainfall over 15% higher than the high base of 2023 and continuing severe weather fronts, weather is never an excuse, but it is context. Beneath the headline numbers, we are making progress. I want to start by saying the fundamentals for the business are robust. We were pleased to receive clearance from the CMA in June for our acquisition of Stuttgart and East Surrey.

Speaker 1

Integration is underway alongside our group wide rightsizing and reshaping as we head into the new regulatory delivery period. We're reshaping the group with 4 clear business lines aligned to our 4 strategic priorities. Through rightsizing, we are focused on having more of our colleagues on the frontline. And with these changes, we'll have increased frontline teams by 35% over this 5 year regulation period, K7, a really good position to be in as

Speaker 2

we head into K8. We have set out

Speaker 1

our plan to invest to improve outcomes in K7, whether it improves the water exhaust positioning following the drought or getting ahead of storm overflow investment with WaterTip program. We have invested €200,000,000 in the asset base this half year, broadly consistent with the run rate from the end of 2023, 'twenty four and aligns with the soon to be KX run rate for investment. The solid operational performance across all parts of the group, whether you are a Southwest Water, Bristol Water, or certainly a slower customer, was recognized in UphWater Company's performance report issued last month in October. Having received outstanding data assessments for our Southwest Water and Foot Lenny Surrey respective business plans, we are well positioned to deliver our plans for K8 and another period of significant growth. As we're closing the K7 regulation period, I've been reflecting on it being a significant period of change for the Tennant Group.

Speaker 1

Our agility in delivering for all stakeholders has been a constant. Following the sale of Virgo in 2020 and as part of a highly disciplined strategic view, we responsibly deployed capital, positioning the group sustainably by minimizing liabilities. We invested in the

Speaker 2

UK Water with the acquisition of Bristol

Speaker 1

and Suttnay Surrey at total value of €600,000,000 and we have recognized shareholder support through our K7 dividend policy. We've made a record investment in the asset base of €1,800,000,000 as we focus on things that matter most to customers, which alongside our acquisitive growth strategy results in RCV growth of 75%. We're also expanding our non regulated business with our 3 business to business retailers now having a combined market share of around 15% and our investments in TenOn Power are on track. Customers have benefited through our innovative first of its kind water share plus scheme. Launched in 2020, this gives customers a stake and a say in our business and they also have shared in the financial benefit.

Speaker 1

Alongside this, we have delivered solid relative sector performance with around 70% of OGI's net over the period. We are focused on supporting those customers, keeping bills as low as possible through a driver efficiency and providing tangible support for both in Egypt most, achieving 100 percent affordability for the first time this year. With managing directors in place for water services, wastewater services, tail on power and retail services, we are reshaping this group aligned to the new model, ensuring we have the right resources and capabilities on the front line and streamlined corporate functions. Supporting this, our supply chain partnership Amplify has already been stood up and delivering on over 1,000 schemes, including 75,000,000 with accelerated investment to kick start our plan to lease build from storm overflows. Our 4 strategic priorities are not new.

Speaker 1

They are a continent and you have heard me consistently talk about them. That is a jumby internally for our 4,000 colleagues and supply chain partners ensuring we can deliver on our commitments externally and in delivering the things that matter most to customers. Our customer and community roadshows this year have been a personal highlight. I have been able to reconfirm our priorities by discussing those with customers. We're listening.

Speaker 1

Further from Bristol to Bournemouth and across Devon, Cornwall, the outer slurry and more recently, certainly Surrey In investing to protect water quality, enhance resilience, we have broken the drought cycle for Devon and Cornwall well ahead of plan.

Speaker 2

In tackling the former flows, our features

Speaker 1

and eradicating solutions, we are making progress to the sustainable reductions and making sure that these are made. We're working to invest in renewable energy, rerisking the energy requirements for the water business and building a portfolio that has returns in excess of the regulated water business for the capital allocated. At the same time, we continue to successfully support customers with affordability to pinch points, a key asset that has been to manage customer bills to be lower than they were 10 years ago as we place to eradicate water poverty. The financial results for the 2024, 2025 half year include the 1st full 6 months of Sutton and East Surrey. While it helps the understanding of the results, we will refer to like for like comparisons.

Speaker 1

1st, revenue. Our successful water demand and customer initiatives helping customers to use less and save more has meant that on a like for like basis across the wholesale water business, we've seen lower revenues. Regulated revenue mechanisms are in place to protect future recovery, and Nora will walk through the financial position. 2nd, the cost base. Position.

Speaker 1

2nd, the cost base. We're on track to deliver €55,000,000 of cumulative annualized efficiency savings in 20 24, 'twenty 5 as we reshape the group and integrate FCS towards our targeted annualized savings of 8,000,000 to 6,000,000 in K8. This is an important base from which to deliver the K8 business stands. 3rd, having run through expenditure during K7, we are delivering required K8 run rate and the supply chain alliance Amplify are in place. 4th, our return on regulated equity to the water businesses is relatively strong at 10.8% on a nominal actual balance sheet basis and 6% on a real notional water share basis.

Speaker 1

5th, we are delivering for investors as well as customers with robust relative performance on common ODIs with overall cumulative ODI performance at 70%. And finally, we have retained and grown our profitable sector leading business to business retailers, Penn and Water Services and Water to Business. They both continue to deliver excellent customer service and drive market share, doubling PBT against H1 2023, 2024. And we have plans to consolidate SES business retailer into the group. Underpinning all activities is a robust funding position with Pelham Group gearing at 68% and total Waterfront RCV gearing of 65%.

Speaker 1

With good liquidity, we maintain the ability to deliver on our strategy in UK Water and are well positioned for a sustainable future. And with that, I will hand over to Laura. Thank you, Susan. I'm Laura, and I'm pleased

Speaker 2

to be presenting my 3rd set of results as CFO of Pennon, having taken on the role in July. Overall, we've delivered a resilient set of financial results for the first half of twenty twenty four-twenty five, in line with the expectations we set out in our trading statement on the 26th September. Headline EBITDA was €164,000,000 versus €169,000,000 in the previous period, with contribution from SES partly offsetting the performance in Southwest quarter, which was impacted by lower revenues from lower demand that Susan has talked about. Excluding SES, underlying EBITDA was down from £168,500,000 to £150,200,000 Southwest Water's capital expenditure was a little over £300,000,000 as we continue to invest in improvements across our regions and our networks as well as ensuring we are set up to deliver on the investment program and improve service targets required for K8. Total group CapEx of €332,000,000 reflects the inclusion of SES and Pennant Power.

Speaker 2

Shadow RCV across our water business is benefiting from growth of 45% over K7 in Southwest Water, higher than anticipated from PR 14 due to accelerated investment along with regulatory true ups and inflationary impacts with group acquisitions driving 30% uplift resulting in an overall increase in group RCC of around 75% over the K7. As we have invested over the K7 period through water fit, accelerated investment, green recovery and so on, we are seeing the impact coming through the income statement of increased financing charges and depreciation. While this is not reflected in LCV through PR 'nineteen, this will be trued up on the 31st March through the regulatory adjustments and the revenue impact will also be trued up for the K-seven shortfall as part of the K-eight reset, broadly equal to £17,000,000 of income statement uplift seen in the draft determination. Based on net debt at September, water group gearing, including Southwest Bristol and now FES Water was 65%. Southwest Water Deering, excluding SES, was 64%, both within our K7 policy.

Speaker 2

Return on regulated equities stands at 6 percent real for the K-seven period to date and reflects strong financing and top X performance, partially offset by reducing inflation and higher expenditure over the past 6 months. On an notional actual balance sheet basis, Rory stands at around 10.8%. In line with Pennon's 2020 to 2025 dividend policy for growth of CPIH plus 2%, the Board has declared an interim dividend of 14.69p per share for the half year ending 30th September 2024. On a like for like basis, excluding SES, underlying group revenue was broadly flat at €450,600,000 with lower customer demand in Southwest Water more than offsetting the benefit of tariff increases. Cost impact in the current year and regulatory pricing mechanisms will ensure revenues are fully recovered over time.

Speaker 2

On a group basis, statutory and underlying revenue was up 17.5% to €527,200,000 benefiting from the acquisition of FES and growth in Pennon Water Services. Like for like operating costs in the water business increased by 5%, reflecting inflationary pressures, continued high power costs and costs associated with the implementation of the new customer billing system in Southwest Water. These were partially offset by efficiencies from our continued transformational and integration programs. Group operating costs increased 29.8 percent to 363,700,000 resulting from the full 6 month consolidation of FES. Higher costs in Penon Water Services, reflecting higher wholesale supply costs consequent on the higher reported revenue, also resulted in increased group costs.

Speaker 2

Depreciation and amortization increased year on year to £94,000,000 mainly as a result of the inclusion of SES alongside an increase in South West quarter due to the capital investment program. This resulted in underlying operating profits reducing to €59,500,000 from €85,900,000 in the prior year. Like for like financing costs were broadly flat year on year as lower inflation on index linked debt benefit interest rates, offset by the impact of increased borrowing from the capital investment program. Group interest charges increased to £88,600,000 primarily due to the inclusion of £9,700,000 of financing charges in FES. Our focus is now on reshaping and restructuring our operations for efficient delivery ahead of K8.

Speaker 2

We will recognize £16,000,000 of restructuring costs as non underlying charges across the year to enable a more streamlined delivery into the final quarter of this year and into ks8. Dollars 3,700,000 of these costs were recognized in the 1st 6 months of the year with an expectation of $16,000,000 of non underlying costs for the full year. The Brixton incident resulted in non underlying costs of £16,300,000 recognized in the first half of the year as a result of costs to support customers' bottled water deliveries, customer compensation and work to clean and restore the network. Finally, on a like for like basis, the group reported a statutory loss before tax of £34,000,000 compared with a profit before tax of £3,200,000 in H1 2023 2024. So let's drill down a bit more into revenue.

Speaker 2

Within Southwest Water, we're seeing the impact of our successful Water is Precious campaign, where we offer customers practical support on how to use water efficiently both inside and outside the home. Reduced demand impacted revenue by £19,000,000 which more than offset the 3% benefit from tariff increases and resulted in a 2% reduction in Southwest water revenue in the first half of the year. Penn on Water Services revenue increased by €8,700,000 driven by inflationary factors and new contract wins in the period. These two factors led to revenue excluding SES being broadly flat year on year at £451,000,000 SES contributed £26,600,000 of revenue in the period, largely comprising the regulated water business and their non household retail business, such that headline revenue for the group was up 17.5%. The movements in EBITDA broadly reflect the revenue impact in Southwest quarter of lower demand.

Speaker 2

Cost pressures from non commodity power costs, wage inflation of around 4% and the new digital customer service platform have been partially offset by lower commodity power costs and efficiency savings with around 10% overall reduction in Southwest Water EBITDA. Penn on Water Services EBITDA was up 19% to £3,700,000 and with the contribution from SCS, headline EBITDA was £163,500,000 Since the completion of the merger of Bristol Water, we've been delivering on our proven acquisition and integration blueprint. We are on track to deliver a run rate of around £20,000,000 of annualized synergies by the end of the financial year with £18,500,000 achieved by half one twenty twenty fourtwenty twenty five. The reshaping and restructuring activities we have initiated are vital for ensuring we have the right resources in the right places focused on delivering our commitments for now and throughout K-eight. These activities are expected to deliver annualized profit savings of around €55,000,000 when complete.

Speaker 2

We have over €35,000,000 annualized savings in progress through both our operational initiatives to improve efficiency as well as our group wide restructuring program. £16,000,000

Speaker 1

of costs are expected across the full

Speaker 2

year related to these initiatives. In addition, we received clearance from the CMA in June 2024 for our acquisition of FES. We are aligning the FES businesses to the group structure and are on target to deliver around £11,000,000 of annualized integration savings with £2,000,000 achieved in H1 2024, '25. On a like for like basis, group capital expenditure in the first half was 319,800,000 and including SES, total CapEx was 331,800,000

Speaker 1

up

Speaker 2

65,500,000 or 24.6 percent, driven by a 71,600,000 increase in Southwest Water Investment and 12,000,000 spend in SES. Investment reflects the ongoing focus on transitioning to K8 as well as delivering the final regulatory commitments for K7. With more resilient water resources, excellent progress on our state of the art water treatment works in Bournemouth and 100% water quality at Bavenwaters, our investment is delivering benefits as we close out the regulatory period. And coupled with our strategy of consolidation in the UK water sector has resulted in RTV growth of 75% over the K-seven. FES capital expenditure of £12,000,000 largely comprises £9,300,000 spend in respect of the rollout of FES Water's metering program.

Speaker 2

Investment in Pennon Power of £13,400,000 reflects the start of construction at 2 sites with a significant ramp up in activity anticipated in the second half of the year as the build program accelerates. The around €32,000,000 in the prior period was largely related to the cost of purchasing the sites, total of around €40,000,000 in 20 three-twenty four. Group debt at 30 September 2024 was €4,400,000,000 with over €675,000,000 of liquidity available to the group. We were pleased to secure 2 strong investment grade budget ratings in the period, the BAA1 rating from Moody's and BBB plus from Fitch. These ratings enabled us to launch our EMTN program alongside our inaugural €400,000,000 bond issuance in August 2024.

Speaker 2

Alongside a U. S. Private placement, we have secured €550,000,000 in new borrowings in the period, building on our diversified debt portfolio and standing us in good stead to ensure ongoing funding for our continued high level of capital investment across the K-eight period. We will continue to target efficient funding streams with Southwest Water's effective interest rate remaining relatively low for the sector at 5.3% and an average maturity of 14 years. We have a diversified mix of fixed, floating and index linked debt and use interest rate swaps to manage volatility and to align with the regulatory cost of debt allowances over the period.

Speaker 2

In preparation for K-eight, over €500,000,000 of swaps have been put in place to fix our floating rate instruments. Given these developments in the half year, we are well placed to secure funding and maintain a diversified portfolio for the future. Looking forward, we will of course see the full year results of the FES acquisition in the outturn position. The outlook for Southwest Water Revenue sees a continuation of lower customer demand, offsetting tariff increases in new customer numbers, resulting in a balanced H1H2 split and broadly flat year on year. Continued elevated non commodity power costs and the costs in the new digital customer services platform in Southwest Water are expected to be partially offset by increased efficiency savings realized with effect from the final quarter of 'twenty four, 'twenty five, meaning costs in Southwest Water are higher year on year and will continue to impact on profitability.

Speaker 2

We anticipate group capital expenditures for the full year to continue at the H1 2024, 2025 run rate. This reflects early work in preparation for K8, including €75,000,000 accelerated investments in storm overflows agreed with Ofwat as well as investment in responses to operational incidents such as Exmouth and Brixham, a peak year for Tennant Power development costs and the full year impact of FES investment. The impact of our ongoing capital program on our debt position, in addition to FES's financing charges, is expected to increase group net finance costs for the full year with a step up in H2. The Water businesses RCV for 2024, 2025 is expected to increase, reflecting continued high capital expenditure from additional and accelerated investment as well as the finalization of the K-seven period. Thank you for your time.

Speaker 2

I will now hand you back to Susan.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Laura. I'd now like to explain where we are against our top priorities. The top priority for our customers is safe, clean drinking water across Bristol, Bournemouth, Devon, Cornwall, the Alba City and Marathon and Leeds, Surrey. We have been investing to protect water quality and enhance resilience, and we have broken the drought cycle for Devon and Cornwall well ahead of plan. This has been a monumental undertaking with teams across Lassa Water and our supply chain partners involved.

Speaker 1

That pool pit has been fully operational since March this year with construction complete at the new treatment works at Rialten. That means for Cornwall, we have supplemented resources cumulatively since 2022 by 34% with 4% extra delivery in this half year, having delivered a 30% uplift to Devon last year. With overall resource levels now at 80%, we achieved 100% supplydemand balance index for the first time in the 2023 ETA, turning that measure to green. There are always 2 sides of the coin, and reducing demand is key for future resilience. Our flexi leading demand reduction schemes are focused on supporting customers to use less and save money.

Speaker 1

Leading with our Watery's precious water efficiency campaign has been targeting both residents and visitors. In Cornwall, residents were given £10 off their bills and delivering a 5% reduction in use. We're also trialing several firsts for the region with progressive Paris trials, seasonal and rising block, and early results are showing demand reductions for customers from between 2% and 9%. Whilst we are focused on protecting water resources, safe, clean drinking water remains customers' number one priority and we continue to make good progress in rolling out our successful 40 1st culture and training programs to Bristol with plans to extend it to Fotenoli Suri. The incident earlier in the year in Brixton highlights just how important that it is to our customers that they can have confidence in their water supply.

Speaker 1

We continue to work with the drinking water inspector on the lessons learned from that incident. Our underlying water quality is improving. With SES the top performer in the industry and sources up for water and fluids companies, we are confident we can do more as we share best practice. For Bournemouth customers, we continue to make the progress using state of the art off-site build techniques for our new water treatment work at Albany and that mill, which will supply 85% of the former's population. In Devon and Cornwall, we are on track to finalize improvements at Stybion, St.

Speaker 1

Clair, St. Paul and in Elhampton, with capital investments across Bristol ahead of significant investment in KA, showing improvements on market performance. Settling the storm reserves is a priority, and there's no doubt we've been challenged with the highest rainfall in the 3rd West since October 2023 to August 2024 since records began. I said earlier, this is not an excuse, but it is there for context. Groundwater levels have remained exceptionally high with the corresponding increase in the headline number of storm overflows spills.

Speaker 1

We are investing to make sure we can alleviate and eliminate the use of storm overflows and bring down the spills when we have higher rainfall. Our investments are working, having resolved twothree of our highest flows from 2023 and prevented roundabout 12,500 spills to 350 interventions. Importantly, we have maintained our sector leading performance for internal sewer flooding and are reducing our external sewer flooding incidents to remain in upper quartile of our performance, ensuring homes and businesses are protected. Our water fit investments, which we started in 2022, have been focused on reducing the flows into our network with 57 kilometers of sewers relined to reduce infiltration. We've completed over 12 hectares of sewers separation.

Speaker 1

We've increased storage at 60 sites, mainly tripling our storage capacity to capture flows that otherwise would have been spilt, retaining them for treatment after the summer event. And we've increased treatment capacity at 15 wastewater treatment works. We've also been maximizing existing capacity at 90 sites for interventions such as increasing wear heights and for optimization. With 8 60 miles of coastline across our region, we are rightly focused on improving our paving beaches. And on a like for like basis, we are maintaining 100% paving water quality standards for the 4th year in a row.

Speaker 1

We've had 6 new designations made in 2024 and we're working to support catchment schemes to ensure that designations meet the highest standards. 3 have already met standards and the remaining 3 are where our assets have limited impact. So we're working to understand the other upstream forces to support improvements. We continue to focus on reducing the number of spills at bathing waters and despite the increased rainfall we've seen, the headline spill numbers have reduced by 12% during the bathing season. We also recognize though there is still much more to do on eliminating pollutions and spills.

Speaker 1

We have had some of the lowest absolute levels of serious solutions across the sector and we've now had a Category 1 incident since 2018. We remain focused on driving improvements to overall pollution levels for Devon and Cornwall. The increasing level of the Category 3 solutions remain the top priority of everyone who works in waste and water services. Historically, the majority of solutions occurred in the network and the work we have done here is working with a 40% reduction in incidence from these assets over K-seven. We achieved this by investing in 12,000 sewer depth monitors supporting both predictive and proactive interventions as well as continuing to invest in riser main replacements and sewer upgrades alongside supercharging maintenance and pelting cleansing activities.

Speaker 1

We've seen improvement to underlying performance at our treatment works and our focus has now turned to our pumping stations where resilience to the border and increased growth has been challenging. We are responding with improved site and OTs and enhanced cleansing as well as tackling power resilience. We're also focused on upskilling teams so we are better equipped to mitigate react to pollution events. We're improving river water quality at 7 sites with 8% reduction in phosphorus and have improved the reasons for not achieving this ecological status over K7 from 19% to 12%. Our award winning catchment management program is leading the way to biodiversity gains as well as continuing to help the way others manage their land, improve water quality, biodiversity and have climate resilience.

Speaker 1

The activities range from building ponds, improving farm tracks, low storage as well as planting trees and buffer strips to catch and filter water. With our commitment to net 0, our investment in Pennant Power has continued as nearly half of our targeted capacity already under construction at 2 sites in Fife and Abadesha and we have appointed preferred partners at our 2 further sites. In terms of these assets post energization on an unlevered basis are between 7% 9% and on a levered basis of between 11% 15%. In tackling affordability, it is about doing 2 things: keeping bills as low as possible and supporting those who are vulnerable. By focusing on efficiency, we've kept bills below inflation with the bill in Southwest now than it was 10 years ago with the average bill now less than £1.50 a day.

Speaker 1

And given you can't choose your water provider if you're a household, we believe you should have a say, which is why we plan to grow our unique Water Share perfume as well as extend this to certainly new Surrey customers for the first time. While bills are lower, we are supporting more customers than ever before with over 140,000 benefiting from our support tariffs across the globe. By unlocking over 110,000,000 in financial support, we have increased affordability to 100% of customers in South Western Bristol, on track to meet our pledge of having 0 customers in water property by 2025, and 5 years ahead of the rest of the sector. Key to building trust is reducing complaints. With Bristol recognized as top performer for customer service, we see opportunities for improving across the group with Southwest reducing complaints by 18% last year and opportunity to share best practice with SCS to improve customer service.

Speaker 1

We continue to support customers to use less and save more through our progressive charges trial. Against our customer commitments, about 70 percent of our ODIs are ahead or on track. And as that lines up towards the company performance report, we are delivering good relative performance in the sector. We are industry leading our upper quartile in several measures, including the internal sea of flooding and unplanned outages for Davos Water, quality and supply interruptions for Suttnay Surrey and customer service in Bristol. As we enter the next regulatory period, our 2023 2024 report indicate that companies in the group are in a relatively good position in respect of the common ODIs and that's important because these are the measures that are retained for the new KA period.

Speaker 1

On our non regulated retailers, which now include FES Business Water, we continue to build on their strong performance with combined market share of 15% and a strong EBITDA. Animal Water Services and Water Business have an outstanding focus on customer service and truck pilot scores of 4.85 respectively. Following the SES acquisition, which included other non regulated businesses, we see opportunities for consolidation, efficiencies and showing a best practice. We are energized by Salvator's outstanding status for our business plan and the good status for FCS' plan recognized by Ofwat to draft determination. Draft determination provides a floor for RCV growth of 30% for the group.

Speaker 1

The cost of capital is protected against reduction between CD and FD with a 30 basis points upside to South Australia if we meet 4 criteria and a 5 basis points upside to FES. One of the criteria is to achieve the EPA 4 staff status by 2028. We had one of the lowest levels of potash reductions of any water and sewage company in the sector at around about 7%, reflecting the efficient business plan we submitted. And importantly, we received all of the funding for our storm overflow plans, allowing us to bring forward €75,000,000 of early start transition spend, which will be included in our March 2025 RCV with returns applied in K8. Given our outstanding status, our Wisconsin draft determination has covered 4 areas of representation, many of which are consistent across the sector, ensuring a balance of risk and return with targets such as stretching but achievable levels that show upper quartile performance in one open substantially offset underperformance in another and a return to expenditure levels and RTV will now set out in the plan.

Speaker 1

And lastly, ensuring our investments are balanced both regionally, nationally and between wash and wastewater. The timetable is set to deliver the final termination on the 19th December and we look forward to holding a capital market day on the 25th February to take a look at through our delivery plans. I've talked a lot today about how we are reshaping the group. We couldn't achieve any of our plans without the ongoing support of our teams and the support of our wider supply chain partners. When I reflect on Brixham, they say you see the best of people in the most challenging of times.

Speaker 1

We saw that in bucket loads from all our colleagues as they gave up weekends and evenings to help customers in addition to doing their day jobs. From network technicians to engineers, water quality scientists, customer service and comms teams and contractors, over 800 colleagues came together as one team. In Manning, 3 bottled water stations, 7 days a week, teams also hand delivered over 390,000 bottles of water direct customers with customers receiving over 1,400,000 bottles of water in total. Our customer services teams held 14 customer events in and around Brixham over 8 weeks and our mobile van district communities over 40 times to be on hand to help. Our communication teams held briefings with the media twice a day throughout and we are now working with the English Riviera Big Company to match fund their budgets and support a legacy project to support tourism.

Speaker 1

In reshaping the group, we are putting more resources on the front line than ever before. We are the only watercolor ATP being recognized as the top 100 employee for apprenticeships for 2nd year running ahead of the plan to offer 1,000 apprenticeships and graduate roles by 2,030. We've delivered over 4,000 courses at our growing number of internal training facilities. In November, we were recognized for our earn and learn approach to development with platinum status awarded to a 55 percent club who share an ambition to fight the future of workforce development and national prosperity. We continue to promote social mobility giving young people the opportunity to dive into their local water company.

Speaker 1

It's very important in a region where deep seated social mobility issues exist and where the Southwest ranks the 3rd worst for upward occupational mobility. I'd like to thank everyone in the group for what they have delivered and for what we are about to do as we look ahead to K8. Supporting our ambitions are our supply chain partnership Amplify, and that's already been set up and is delivering on over 1,000 schemes. We have a robust financial position with good liquidity, having secured €550,000,000 of funding in this first half year, putting us in a strong position to finance our largest ever investment program to 2,030. In summary, we are reshaping the business to enable us to deliver more for customers.

Speaker 1

We're focused on closing down K7 with record investments to drive benefits in K8. We are well positioned as we look ahead to our next business plan and another period of significant growth.

Remove Ads
Powered by Quartr
Earnings Conference Call
Pennon Group H1 24/25
00:00 / 00:00
Remove Ads