National Grid expects annual earnings per share to be weighted towards the second half of the year, with Britain’s energy systems operator confident of meeting full-year expectations.
The group, which also runs an electricity and gas business in New York and Massachusetts, said it expects operating profit to be broadly evenly split across the year for its UK businesses, but more heavily weighted towards the second half for its US ones.
National Grid expects 10 to 15 per cent of its New York business’s full-year operating profit to come in the first half ended 30 September, due to a higher non-cash environmental provision charge.
The London-listed company said it met its financial guidance over the first half of the year to 30 September
The company said in a statement: ‘For our UK regulated businesses, we expect contributions to operating profit to be broadly evenly split across the year.
‘For our US regulated businesses, we expect contributions to be more heavily weighted towards the second half.’
The group added that its New York business is expected to deliver between 10 per cent and 15 per cent of its full-year operating profit over the past half-year after being impacted by a non-cash impairment.
The company previously saw profits for the year to March as the electricity distribution business it bought two years earlier grew strongly.
It had seen a 15 per cent rise in underlying operating profit to £4.6billion, while reported pre-tax profit rose 4 per cent to £3.6billion.
In July, National Grid sold a further 20 per cent stake in National Gas to its existing majority owners, a consortium of investors led by Australia’s Macquarie Asset Management.
The firm said the stake sale would be on the equivalent financial terms as when it sold a 60 per cent stake to the consortium in January.
That deal had implied an enterprise value of about £9.6billion pounds for the UK gas transmission and metering business.
National Grid shares were up 1.13 per cent to 947.80p in midday trading on Thursday.
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