Pennon Group (LSE:PNN) confirmed on Tuesday that its 7 for 15 rights issue has closed with valid acceptances for approximately 94.229% of the new shares on offer, leaving the underwriters to place the remainder.
The London-listed water utility launched the fully underwritten rights issue on 7 October, seeking to raise approximately £550m to fund a roughly £1bn increase in its regulated investment ambition, lifting planned AMP8 investment to approximately £3.6bn from the original Final Determination plan.
Qualifying shareholders took up 207.55m of the 220.26m new shares offered at 250p each, leaving 12.66m shares untaken.
Barclays Bank and Morgan Stanley, acting as underwriters, will use reasonable endeavours to find subscribers for those remaining shares at the rights issue price, and have committed to subscribe for any unplaced shares themselves under the underwriting agreement.
The new shares are expected to begin trading fully paid on the London Stock Exchange's main market at 8 am today.
The rights issue forms part of a wider funding package Pennon set out on 7 October alongside its proposed sale of Pennon Power, with roughly £25m of the disposal proceeds earmarked for reinvestment in "behind the meter" renewable generation and the balance used to cut Group debt.
Read more about Pennon
- 07/10/26Pennon launches £550m rights issue and cuts dividend to fund asset overhaul
- 10/06/26Pennon doubles profit after year of heavy investment
The same funding plan saw Pennon rebase its dividend for the 2026/27 financial year to approximately £125m, down from £138m in 2025/26, an implied underlying cut in dividend per share of approximately 30% with dividend per share expected roughly 18p.
Pennon returned to statutory profit for the year ended 31 March with profit before tax of £114.4m, against a £72.7m loss the prior year, as underlying EBITDA rose 55% to £519.2m on roughly 25% higher regulated water revenue.
