Including a pounds 25m restructuring charge, which held back 1994's first
Including a pounds 25m restructuring charge, which extcal held back 1994's first half, profits jumped 48 per cent in the period, from pounds php?year=2010&month=3&day=10 67.2m to pounds 99.5m. The company is likely day php?year=2010&month=3&day=10 to have to day invest pounds 75m to increase water resources and stem modules leaking modules extcal pipes. Yorkshire currently loses 26 per cent of its supplies before they reach the taps.The problems extcal show little sign of abating. Ofwat said yesterday that the appointment of Mr Bond day php?year=2010&month=3&day=10 was an modules issue for management but that modules extcal it viewed it as "interesting".Two weeks ago the firm dealt a further blow to its angry customers by saying modules that it was considering compulsory metering. Recently Yorkshire appointed a new finance director: Brian Wilson, formerly with Norweb, the electricity company.Yorkshire Water's problems were exacerbated in November when it emerged as one of several firms php?year=2010&month=3&day=10 singled out by the watchdog, Ian Byatt, for failing day to come up to scratch on some water treatment and pollution issues. He has a demonstrable commitment to customer service and to environmental improvement extcal and will be a valuable addition to day php?year=2010&month=3&day=10 the water services business and to the plc board."The shares closed last night up 1p at 624p.
The company added that the arrival of Mr Bond brings it close to the end of a restructuring which has taken place over the last two years. Tony Ward, Mr Bond's predecessor, had intended to retire in September but this has now been deferred until early next year.Sir Gordon Jones, chairman, said:"Kevin's experience of the water industry and his understanding of the many complex issues it faces will be of great assistance to Yorkshire water. He called on Yorkshire Water not to go ahead with possible "rota cuts" which could leave some people without supplies on alternate days and which may begin in the New Year.The appointment of a new managing director has been delayed by the difficulties the company has experienced in recent months. That implies an underlying price of 626p, which is only 1p above the 625p at which Lazards, Hoare Govett and BZW underwrote the bid.. MARY FAGAN Industrial Correspondent Beleaguered Yorkshire Water has moved to defuse rows over water shortages and quality of service by appointing Kevin Bond, chief executive of the National Rivers Authority, as the managing director of the core business.The appointment of Mr Bond, 45, to the pounds 135,000 a year post follows months of adverse publicity since the drought in the middle of the year. But the move failed to impress some City analysts who had been expecting an appointment from outside the industry One analyst said: ''This is pretty neutral.
The NRA is a quasi-government body and hardly the most dynamic organisation in the world."Paul Taylor, Yorkshire regional manager for the customer service committee of the regulator, Ofwat, said: ''We welcome management with an interest in water and an understanding of the issues, but I cannot comment on this individual"Mr Taylor said that the main priority was for the company to end the long-running uncertainty for customers about the supply situation in the region. Those movements widened the gap between Granada's bid terms and Forte's market price from just 6p a couple of days ago to almost 13p. More worrying still for the Granada camp is that Granada's recently declared 8p dividend will be stripped out of the price in early January. Sir Ronald should certainly make one of his taks a way of bring shareholder representation into the boardroom in a more formal way - without all that Continental paraphernalia.Unease at Granada's knockout powerForte's official defence document, published yesterday, was a tame enough affair but before it rolled off the printing presses at lunchtime there were tangible signs of unease about Granada's ability to deliver a knock- out higher offer sometime next month.Granada's shares tumbled 11p to 634p while Forte firmed 0.5p to 338.5p. The claimed drawbacks may be exaggerated, but so are the benefits: look at how ineffective the Phillips supervisory board was as the company drew near the brink of collapse a few years ago. As Sir Richard Greenbury found to his cost, the scope for misunderstandings in these areas is enormous.