United Utilities Group (LSE:UU.) Q4 2021 Earnings Call

0:00 Good morning and welcome to United Utilities' four-year results presentation. Since joining the company, I've enjoyed the opportunity to speak to many of you and I look forward to continuing to do so hopefully this year in person. One of the topics that investors have discussed with me is board succession and I'm pleased to say we've ran an orderly process as you'd expect us to. With respect to non-exec directors, in July this year, you'll see that both Mark Clare, Al Cid, and Stephen Carter, who chairs our Corporate Responsibility Committee, will retire from the board. They both contributed hugely to the success of the company over the years, and I want to thank them for their support. We have a clear plan for their succession, having appointed Liam Butterworth to the board in January, and with the appointment of one further non-exec plan for this year.

0:55 In respect to our exec directors, Phil Aspin succeeded as CFO nearly two years ago and the board is delighted with the contributions Phil continues to make. You'll no doubt have seen Steve plans to retire early next year and that Louise Beardmore has been appointed as his successor. Louise has been with United Utilities for over 25 years, and she has extensive utility experience. She's been at the heart of the company's transition to become a leading performer in customer service, operational delivery, employee engagement, and was the outstanding candidate in a rigorous selection process, including both internal and external candidates. The Board is delighted to make this appointment and once again demonstrates the strong management team that Steve has built.

1:46 In his 11 years at Unite Utilities, Steve has led the transformation of the business to become one of the UK's top performing water and wastewater companies. As you'll hear in this morning's presentation, performance over this last year has continued to improve under his leadership of Steve and his management team. Recognising this, the Board proposes an increase of 0.6% in the final dividend, which is in line with our policy. This takes the total dividend to the year to 43.5 pence per share. Thank you, and now I'll hand over to Steve.