Scottish Power hails southern growth

Scottish Power reported further strong growth south of the English border today after adding 460,000 new UK customers and lifting half-year profits by 12%.

The group now has more than 4.7 million energy customers in the UK with an estimated two-thirds being outside the company’s Scottish heartland.

The growth helped group profits for the six months to September 30 to increase to £382m (€549.4m), although the performance was held back by a disappointing result from the company’s US business PacifiCorp.

As a result of the weakness – caused in part by lower summer temperatures - Scottish Power said full-year results from PacifiCorp would miss expectations.

However, the company said it remained confident in the outlook for the group as a whole.

Today’s figures do not cover the second of this year’s price rises announced by Scottish Power in October to cover rising wholesale prices and the cost of expanding its generating operations in southern England.

Many of its customers were unaffected, however, as they benefited from the company’s promotion offering a cap on prices until 2006.