SSE
Heading into a long weekend break and the pickings are unsurprisingly slim in terms of corporate news, but utility firm SSE has printed full year numbers this morning. Despite being down on a year ago, the numbers aren’t as bad as expected – earnings per share came in at the upper end of analyst expectations and dividends will be increased by around 3%, too.
Pennon
Keeping with the theme of utilities, Pennon published results this morning and again there are no surprises to be seen here. Revenues are in line with expectations, giving room for a meaningful 7% uptick in dividend payments. The company is committed to increasing dividends by 4% over inflation from 2010 to 2020 – that’s certainly a welcome boost for investors, but with the cost of doing this ultimately coming from utility consumers, it’s not necessarily a universally popular choice.
Capita
Capita has announced this morning that its rights issue has been a success, with over 97% acceptance amongst shareholders. This will be a sigh of relief, although questions must surely remain over the longer term viability of large outsourcing businesses like this. Proper execution of a long term strategic review is necessary.
