Fitch Ratings has this morning confirmed that it views the outcome of the Anglian Water and Yorkshire Water appeals to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) as credit-positive and that the ratings remain unchanged.

In response to the Competition and Markets Authority’s final findings in the 2019 Price Review appeals published today, Anglian Water has welcomed the CMA’s recognition “that a different approach to funding growth is needed.”

Yorkshire Water said the Competition and Markets Authority's summary of conclusions regarding its Final Determination (FD) in the PR19 appeals will allow it the scope to make the optimum investment decisions in AMP7 to address longer term challenges such as climate change and projected growth in the region.

Ofwat has published its initial comments on the Competition and Markets Authority’s final determinations in the appeals by four water companies against Ofwat’s final determinations in the 2017 Price Review on their AMP7 Business Plans.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has today published its findings on the price controls for the 4 water companies who appealed against Ofwat’s PR19 final determinations on their AMP7 business plans .

In its final comments to the Competition and Markets Authority in the PR19 appeals inquiry, Ofwat has told the CMA that the latest stages of the process have seen the consumer voice “drowned out” with the submissions made to the CMA “increasingly…dominated by the well-resourced company and investor voice.”

More institutional investors have made written submissions to the Competition & Markets Authority expressing their concerns in the current CMA inquiry into appeals by four water companies against Ofwat’s decisions on their AMP7 Business Plans.

Ofwat has told the Competition and Markets Authority that the submissions made to it in the current PR19 water companies’ appeals have ”increasingly been dominated by the well-resourced company and investor voice, on occasion to the exclusion of other perspectives.”

First Sentier Investors (FSI), managers of infrastructure assets on behalf of institutional investors in the UK with in excess of £1.2 billion of equity, including an investment in Anglian Water, has told the Competition and Markets Authority it is “disappointed and concerned to see the CMA reversing key aspects of its Provisional Findings”.

Pension funds group IFM Investors (UK) Ltd, one of the largest infrastructure investors globally, is warning the Competition and Markets Authority of its doubts over the stability and long-term attractiveness of the UK water sector.