Pennon Group plc is a British water utility company based in

Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...

, England. The company is listed on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...

and is a constituent of the

FTSE 250 Index The FTSE 250 Index ( "Footsie") is a capitalisation-weighted index consisting of the 101st to the 350th largest companies listed on the London Stock Exchange. Promotions and demotions to and from the index occur quarterly in March, June, Septemb ...

. 83% of the company's profits come from its subsidiary,

South West Water South West Water provides drinking water and waste water services throughout Devon and Cornwall and in small areas of Dorset and Somerset. South West Water was created in 1989 with the privatisation of the water industry. It was preceded by the ...

History

The company was founded in 1989 as ''South West Water plc'' at the time of the

privatisation Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...

of the Water Industry in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. In 1993 it acquired ''Haul Waste'' and in 1995 it bought ''Blue Circle Waste Management''. It changed its name to ''Pennon Group plc'' in 1998. By 2016, the company employed approximately 4,500 people, and provided water and sewerage to 1.7 million customers in

South West England South West England, or the South West of England, is one of nine official regions of England. It consists of the counties of Bristol, Cornwall (including the Isles of Scilly), Dorset, Devon, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire. Cities and ...

. The company successfully saw off a takeover bid from Terra Firma in 2004. It acquired ''Thames Waste Management'' in 2004, ''Wyvern Waste'' in 2006, ''Grosvenor Waste Management'' and ''Skipaway Holdings'' in 2007 and ''Shore Recycling'' in 2008. In 2016, the group acquired Bournemouth Water in a deal worth £100 million, integrating the company with South West Water, but keeping the Bournemouth Water name. On 8 July 2020, global investment firm KKR completed its £4.2 billion acquisition of waste firm

Viridor Viridor Ltd (from the Latin 'to become green') is a recycling, renewable energy and waste management company in the United Kingdom, owned by KKR (previously owned by Pennon Group). History The company was formed in 1956 as Harrison Western L ...

from Pennon Group. In June 2021, the company acquired

Bristol Water Bristol Water is a British water company which supplies 266 million litres of drinking water daily to over 1.2 million customers in a area centred on Bristol, England. It is regulated under the Water Industry Act 1991. Sewerage services in th ...

for $563 million.

Operations

The company's main asset is

, which supplies water and sewerage services in

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

, and parts of

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

and

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

. South West Water covers 83% of the group's profits.

References

External links

Pennon Group Official site
{{Authority control Water companies of England Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange Companies established in 1989 Companies based in Exeter