United Utilities

Parent company: United Utilities Group Plc

Regulated utility: United Utilities Water Plc

Ownership: Public Limited Company

United Utilities has grown dramatically since privatisation - primarily by acquisition - to become a multi utility company listed on the London stock exchange and with a turnover of over £2 billion. Now its gone almost full circle and is changing back to being primarily a regulated water asset owner and operator.

Waste water issues are a major concern for the group. Huge progress has been made in improving wastewater discharges. However the North West is a heavily industrialized area and this will require considerable further work especially on combined sewer overflows. As a consequence it has the second biggest capital programme of any water company at £3.6 billion. The majority of this £2.18 bn is on wastewater with a much higher 'Quality' spend than the rest of the sector. That is, expenditure to comply with regulations or environmental standards. The regulated capital value is projected to grow by 12% in real terms by 2015 giving United Utilities the highest growth rate of the listed water companies.

United Utilities changed its vision back in 2007 to be "A world class operator of utility infrastructure". Subsequently it sold businesses not aligned to this purpose and its core skills. These included the business process outsourcing company Vertex, the group's telecom's business and United Utilities Electricity. Now it has gone further and the group has announced it is selling its last non-core businesses to Veolia Water. This includes its water overseas operations and outsourcing contracts with Southern Water, Scottish Water and British Gas Trading. The sale will mark the transformation back into a pure water business just like the old North West Water!

While financial performance is strong, United Utilities is at the bottom of the Ofwat OPA league table.