Pennon Group Plc, owners of South West Water, has today issued an upbeat interim trading statement saying that financial performance since 1 October 2009 has been in line with management expectations.

The Group also said that South West Water remains on track to meet its AMP4 regulatory contract targets.  On 18 January 2010, SWW announced that it had decided not to ask Ofwat to refer its Price Determination to the Competition Commission. The Group has now fixed or put in place swaps to cover £733m of South West Water debt to the end of the upcoming AMP5 investment cycle which runs from April 2010 to March 2015.

Despite current economic conditions, Viridor, Pennon Group’s waste management and renewable energy subsidiary, is performing well and remains confident of delivering continued full year growth in profits.

Last month the Pennon Board announced its intention to continue to pursue a progressive policy of growing the Group dividend in real terms, at least up to 2014/15 and expects to be able to provide further detail with its Preliminary Results on Tuesday 25 May 2010.

The interim dividend for the year ending 31 March 2010 of 6.95p per share will now be paid to shareholders on 1 April 2010  - 6 days earlier than previously announced.