National Grid's Underlying Profit Rises; Sets GBP60 Billion Investment Plan

By Christian Moess Laursen

National Grid's underlying profit rose, and it plans to invest around 60 billion pounds ($76.30 billion) in energy network infrastructure.

The British electricity and gas utility said Thursday that its underlying pretax profit rose to GBP3.395 billion--excluding its U.K. gas transmission--in the fiscal year ended March 31 from GBP3.26 billion a year prior. Including the gas transmission unit, the underlying figure was GBP4.08 billion.

The result was mainly driven by its U.K. electricity transmission segment as well as operations in New York, and resulted in underlying earnings per share--a company-preferred metric--of 78 pence, also excluding the U.K. gas transmission unit. On a statutory basis, pretax profit fell 15% to GBP3.05 billion.

In a separate release, the company--one of Europe's largest energy-infrastructure companies--said it will invest around GBP60 billion over the next fiver years to deliver energy infrastructure in the U.K. and U.S.

It declared a final dividend of 39.12 pence a share, taking the full-year payout to 58.52 pence. Analysts had expected 58.19 pence a share.

Write to Christian Moess Laursen at christian.moess@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 23, 2024 02:56 ET (06:56 GMT)

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