Water company buyout set for approval by watchdog

Britain's competition watchdog said it is likely to approve the sale of a water company after its initial concerns were addressed.

Pennon, which already owns three UK water companies, bought Sutton and East Surrey Water (SES) in January.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) previously said the deal could make it more difficult for Ofwat to analyse and compare data.

Pennon has now offered to provide data for SES separately from its other water companies.

Pennon, which already owns South West Water, Bristol Water and Bournemouth Water, bought SES from Sumisho Osaka Gas Water UK for £380 million.

The CMA previously said it was worried that losing SES's data would make it harder to estimate cost allowances and set service quality targets across the industry, because it would have fewer points of comparison.

But the CMA said on Tuesday it could approve the buyout after Pennon offered to give separate reporting information for SES from the rest of its water business.

The CMA said there are "reasonable grounds" to believe Pennon's proposed solution would lead to the buyout being accepted.

A decision on whether to allow the buyout or refer it for further investigation will be made by the CMA by 16 July.

SES supplies drinking water to 845,000 customers across East Surrey, West Sussex, west Kent and south London.

Last year, Pennon said it would spend £750 million on upgrading its existing water infrastructure over the two financial years to 2025, which it later increased to £850 million.

Before the SES deal closed, Pennon reported a pre-tax loss of £8.5 million for the year ending 31 March.

At the same time, it gave £112 million to shareholders.