fat cat profits

If you watched Channel 4’s Dirty Business last night and are still feeling angry, this won’t help.
In its 2025/26 half-year results, Pennon Group Plc Group — owner of South West Water — declared an interim dividend of 9.26p per share, worth an estimated £43.7 million, due to be paid on 2 April 2026.
Based on the latest disclosed holdings, sizeable portions of that payment are set to go to major global asset managers: around £3.9m to Lazard (New York), £2.1m to Amundi (Paris) and £2.0m to Pictet (Geneva) — around £8 million combined from this interim dividend alone.
So while pollution concerns, regulatory scrutiny and rising bills dominate locally, a significant share of returns from this regulated monopoly will flow overseas.
Dividends are allowed within the regulatory model where reserves exist.
But the question remains: should £43.7m be heading to shareholders — a sizeable amount of it abroad — while environmental performance stays under the spotlight?

And one more twist....

The Environment Agency’s pension fund holds stakes in several UK water firms — even as the regulator calls for tougher action over pollution failures.