United Utilities Regulatory News (UU.)

United Utilities Group PLC 25 July 2014 UNITED UTILITIES GROUP PLC 2014 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING AND INTERIM MANAGEMENT STATEMENT United Utilities issues an interim management statement, for the period 1 April2014 to 24 July 2014, ahead of its annual general meeting to be held today. Trading update Current trading is in line with the group's expectations. Revenue hasincreased, reflecting the regulated price rise for 2014/15, partly offset bythe previously announced special customer discount of c£20 million which hasbeen applied to this year's bills. This increase in revenue is largely offsetby higher depreciation and other operating costs, as expected. Our capital investment programme is progressing well and, as planned, this hascontinued at high levels as we invest to maintain and improve services forcustomers and deliver further environmental benefits. This also provides asignificant contribution to the regional economy. Regulatory capital investmentfor 2014/15, including infrastructure renewals expenditure, is expected to besimilar to the high level of investment in 2013/14. We continue to deliver improvements in customer service, underpinned by goodoperational performance. The water and sewerage companies have now publishedtheir 2013/14 Ofwat key performance indicator reports and we are pleased toreport a top quartile performance across this range of operational metrics. Inaddition, companies have recently published their overall service incentivemechanism (SIM) scores for 2013/14 and we have achieved an above average scoreacross the industry on this measure, representing continued year-on-yearimprovement. Financial position United Utilities' financial position remains robust. Group net debt is similarto the position at 31 March 2014, despite continued high levels of capitalinvestment. This is before payment of the proposed 2013/14 final dividend,which is scheduled for 1 August 2014, and totals approximately £164 million.Gearing remains well within Ofwat's 2010-15 assumed range of 55% to 65% netdebt to regulatory capital value. This supports a solid A3 credit rating forUnited Utilities Water PLC (UUW). The group has financing headroom into 2016. Price review 2014 As scheduled, in June 2014, UUW submitted to Ofwat revisions to its businessplan covering the 2015-20 period. The revisions followed discussions withstakeholders on a range of issues including the significant wastewater totalexpenditure gap between Ofwat's initial cost threshold and our originalbusiness plan, as submitted last December. Our business plan means thatcustomers would benefit from below inflation growth in average household billsfor the decade to 2020. Ofwat is expected to publish draft determinations on 29August 2014 and final determinations on 12 December 2014. Board changes Nick Salmon will stand down at today's annual general meeting, having completednine years as a non-executive director. Mark Clare, who was appointed as anon-executive director on 1 November 2013 and is a member of the AuditCommittee and the Nomination Committee, will replace Nick as senior independentdirector. This will become effective at the conclusion of today's annualgeneral meeting. The Board would like to thank Nick for his valued contributionand wish him well for the future. Outlook The group expects to deliver a good underlying financial performance for 2014/15. Our improved operational and capital delivery performance will providefurther customer and environmental benefits. In respect of regulatoryoutperformance, we are ahead of schedule and remain confident of delivering our2010-15 targets. We intend to continue with our dividend policy of targeting 2%per annum growth above the rate of RPI inflation through to at least 2015,underpinned by a robust capital structure. We will continue to engage closelywith our regulators, before the draft and final determinations from Ofwat laterthis year. In line with its usual practice, United Utilities intends to issue a pre-closetrading update on 24 September 2014. United Utilities contacts: Gaynor Kenyon, Corporate Affairs Director +44 (0) 7753 622282 Darren Jameson, Head of Investor Relations +44 (0) 7733 127707 Peter Hewer / Martin Pengelley, Tulchan +44 (0) 20 7353 4200Communications This announcement is also available at:

http://corporate.unitedutilities.com/investors.aspx