Severn Trent Regulatory News (SVT)

Severn Trent Plc - Annual Report, Sustainability Report and Notice of the Annual General Meeting

Annual Report and Notice of Annual General Meeting

Severn Trent Plc (the "Company") announces that it has today published its 2020 Annual Report and Notice of Annual General Meeting ("AGM").

Copies of the following documents have been submitted to the Financial Conduct Authority's Electronic Submission Service and may shortly be viewed on the National Storage Mechanism at: https://data.fca.org.uk/#/nsm/nationalstoragemechanism 

· Annual Report and Accounts 2020;

· Notice of AGM; and

· Form of Proxy.

The 2020 Annual Report and Accounts and Notice of AGM are available on the Severn Trent Plc website at www.severntrent.com.

In light of the UK Government's response to COVID-19, the AGM is to be held as a closed meeting and shareholders and their proxies will not be able to attend in person. Shareholders are encouraged to exercise their votes by submitting their proxy forms either electronically or by post. The voting results of all resolutions proposed at the Meeting will be announced as soon as possible after the Meeting.

Shareholders are invited to submit questions in advance of the AGM to shareholderquestions@severntrent.co.uk. The Board will respond to these questions directly and, where appropriate, will publish responses on the Company's website as soon as practicable after the AGM.

The Annual Report and Accounts 2020 for Severn Trent Water Limited will be available to view on Severn Trent Water's website by 20 July 2020 at www.stwater.co.uk.

Sustainability Report

Reinforcing its commitment to long sustainability Severn Trent has today released its first dedicated Sustainability Report to highlight its approach to taking care of the environment, helping people to thrive and continuing to be a company stakeholders can trust.

Our plan is underpinned by £1.2bn of investment over the next five years to deliver significant improvements towards a greener future through enhanced biodiversity, a triple carbon reduction pledge and reduced water usage - taking care of one of life's essentials.

The report and further sustainability disclosures can be found at https://www.severntrent.com/sustainability-strategy/

The Appendix to this announcement contains additional information for the purposes of compliance with the Disclosure and Transparency Rules and should be read together with the Preliminary Results Announcement issued on 20 May 2020 in respect of the financial year ended 31 March 2020 which included, inter alia, a condensed set of the Company's financial statements and extracts from the management report. Together these constitute the information required by DTR 6.3.5 to be communicated to media in full unedited text. This announcement should be read in conjunction with and is not a substitute for reading the full Annual Report and Accounts 2020.

The responsibility statement set out in the Appendix is repeated here solely for the purpose of complying with DTR 6.3.5. The responsibility statement relates to and is extracted from page 129 of the Annual Report and Accounts 2020. Responsibility is for the full Annual Report and Accounts 2020 not the extracted information presented in this announcement and the Preliminary Results Announcement.

Appendix

Directors' responsibility statement

The Directors are responsible for preparing the Annual Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and regulations. Company law requires the Directors to prepare financial statements for each financial year. Under that law the Directors are required to prepare the Group financial statements in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards ('IFRSs') as adopted by the European Union and Article 4 of the IAS Regulation and have elected to prepare the Company financial statements in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Practice (United Kingdom Accounting Standards and applicable law) including FRS101 'Reduced Disclosure Framework'. Under company law the Directors must not approve the accounts unless they are satisfied that they give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the Company and of the profit or loss of the Company for that period.

In preparing the parent company financial statements, the Directors are required to:

· select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;

· make judgements and accounting estimates that are reasonable and prudent;

· state whether applicable UK Accounting Standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements; and

· prepare the financial statements on the Going Concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the Company will continue in business.

In preparing the Group financial statements, International Accounting Standard 1 requires that Directors:

· properly select and apply accounting policies;

· present information, including accounting policies, in a manner that provides relevant, reliable, comparable and understandable information;

· provide additional disclosures when compliance with the specific requirements in IFRSs are insufficient to enable users to understand the impact of particular transactions, other events and conditions on the entity's financial position and financial performance; and

· make an assessment of the Company's ability to continue as a Going Concern.

The Directors are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that are sufficient to show and explain the Company's transactions and disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the Company and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the Company and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

The Directors are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the corporate and financial information included on the Company's website. Legislation in the UK governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions.

Each of the Directors confirm that to the best of their knowledge:

· the financial statements, prepared in accordance with the relevant financial reporting framework, give a true and fair view of the assets, liabilities, financial position and profit or loss of the Company and the undertakings included in the consolidation taken as a whole;

· the Strategic report includes a fair review of the development and performance of the business and the position of the Company and the undertakings included in the consolidation taken as a whole, together with a description of the principal risks and uncertainties that they face; and

· the Annual Report and financial statements, taken as a whole, are fair, balanced and understandable and provide the information necessary for shareholders to assess the Company's position and performance, business model and strategy.