LONDON, May 28 (Reuters) – Solar cell and module maker Jetion Solar <JHL.L> joined other Chinese manufacturers in predicting the weak euro will hurt margins this year, despite an expected increase in sales volumes.

Germany is the world’s largest solar market, and low-cost Chinese manufacturers were last year able to snatch market share there from their European rivals.

“The underlying business is very robust, but unfortunately with Europe being the largest solar market we can’t just walk away because of the exchange rate,” Chairman Gabriel Kow told Reuters after reporting a 6 percent rise in pretax profit for 2009.

Shares in London-listed Jetion, which makes almost all its sales into the European market, were down 26 percent at 73 pence at 1138 GMT, making them the biggest faller on London’s junior AIM market.

The firm said first-half profit would probably fall, despite a forecast 130 percent rise in sales, because the weak euro was hurting margins, and its 2010 profit was dependent on the exchange rate.

Other Chinese solar companies, such as Yingli Green Energy <YGE.N> and SolarFun Power <SOLF.O>, have expressed concern over prices this year because of the euro. [ID:nN24246544] [ID:nSGE64P0DI] Jetion said it hoped a planned listing in Hong Kong late in the summer would allow it to develop sales in China and Asia Pacific as well as provide funding for capacity expansion.

Kow said if the IPO did not go through for any reason, Jetion had other funding options.

HONG KONG/LONDON (Reuters) – After sparking a massive price war and wreaking havoc on earnings at European and U.S. makers of crystalline silicon solar cells and panels, China now has established wind turbine manufacturers in its sights.

While Denmark’s Vestas and U.S. conglomerate General Electric were still the top two wind turbine suppliers in 2009, according to Danish consultancy BTM, Chinese firms are coming up fast.

Sinovel Wind, Xinjiang Goldwind Science and Technology Co, and Dongfang Electric all took up top 10 ten places and firms are keen to compete in the export market.

“(Chinese manufacturers) have already established international sales teams and are actively bidding for contracts overseas. The process is underway,” said Robert Todd, Hong Kong-based director of Renewable Energy, Resources and Energy Group at HSBC.

“It’s just a question of how soon they could actually build momentum,” said Todd, who forecasts Chinese wind companies winning more projects outside China over the next 12 months.

Goldwind on Monday said it established a wholly-owned U.S. unit in Chicago, marking its fresh assault on a market largely served by General Electric. The move follows Goldwind’s establishment of a production base in Germany and a subsidiary in Australia late last year.

China’s biggest wind turbine maker and the world’s No.3, Sinovel, exported 10 wind turbines of 1.5 megawatts each to India last year. The unlisted Chinese company also purchased in March from American Superconductor Corp electrical systems for its high-capacity 5-megawatt wind turbine, a homegrown technology planned for export in the long-term.

LONDON, May 25 (Reuters) – British water firm Pennon <PNN.L> beat expectations with a 14 percent rise in full-year profit on Tuesday, driven by its fast-growing waste management unit Viridor and announced a better than expected dividend policy.

Pennon, which supplies customers in Devon and Cornwall via South West Water, said it would increase dividends by 4 percent above the rate of inflation each year, compared with 3 percent above inflation for the past five years.

Rivals United Utilities <UU.L> and Severn Trent <SVT.L> have been forced to cut dividends as a result of the latest ruling by regulator Ofwat to cut household bills in real terms by 2015.

Pennon’s shares were flat at 0821 GMT, outperforming a wider market sell-off <.FTAS>.

Broker Evolution upgraded its stance on Pennon to ‘add’ from ‘neutral’ following the results and dividend policy.

Ambrian said Pennon’s two-pronged water and waste strategy was continuing to work.

“We see Pennon as one of the quality plays in the sector and we would look to move to a Buy on any weakness,” said Angelos Anastasiou, who has a Hold on the stock.

LONDON, May 24 (Reuters) – Britain’s Chloride Group Plc <CHLD.L> reported full-year results at the top of expectations and said it had heard nothing more from Emerson Electric Co <EMR.N> following the U.S. group’s bid approach last month.

The power supply company, whose clients include the likes of HSBC <HSBA.L>, IKEA and Sainsbury’s <SBRY.L>, did not once mention Emerson’s 723 million pounds ($1 billion) approach in its results statement on Monday.

“The only thing I can tell you is that we’ve heard no more directly from them,” Finance Director Neil Warner told reporters.

Analysts said the ball was in the court of Emerson, whose cash approach was worth 275 pence per Chloride share. [ID:nLDE63P06M]

“We expect the starting point for a successful offer from Emerson now to be substantially above 300p, which will test the latter’s resolve,” Michael Blogg at brokerage Arbuthnot wrote in a research note.

“Emerson may need Chloride to fill a gap but Chloride does not need Emerson,” Blogg added.

Chloride said it had started the new year with a record order book of 160 million pounds after posting adjusted pretax profit for the year to end-March of 41.4 million pounds.

LONDON, May 21 (Reuters) – Britain’s largest listed water company United Utilities <UU.L> said it was seeing some stabilisation in industrial and commercial demand after reporting an inline 5.8 percent fall in adjusted pretax profit.

“It’s bumping along the bottom. We’re not seeing a big uptick but we’re not seeing a further deterioration,” outgoing Finance Director Tim Weller told reporters on Friday.

Industrial and commercial demand fell by 5 percent over the course of the year as the recession hit, he said.

The firm, which supplies water to about seven million customers in the north west of England, said the level of bad debts, where customers cannot pay their bills, had also stabilised at about 3.5 percent of revenue.

Its shares rose as much as 2 percent after the results, making it among the top bluechip risers, also boosted by an upgrade to Add at Evolution Securities. By 0911 GMT, its shares, which have outperformed other London-listed utilities by 10 percent since the start of the year, were up 1.4 percent at 534 pence. The STOXX Europe 600 Utilities index <.SX6P> was up 0.3 percent.

Broker Ambrian said United Utilities was one of its preferred options in the utility sector.

“Given the stable regulatory outlook of the water sector over the next five years, we see UU as a safe, steady play in the utilities arena, with 24 percent upside to our price target of 655p,” Ambrian’s Angelos Anastasiou said.

LONDON (Reuters) – Energy distributor National Grid surprised investors with a 3.2 billion pound rights issue to fund a sharp increase in investment needed to update ageing infrastructure.

The gas and electricity transmission network operator said Thursday it would sell 990 million shares in a 2-for-5 rights issue at 335 pence, a 46 percent discount to Wednesday’s close.

National Grid shares fell 7.3 percent to 574.5 pence by 1238 GMT, making the company the top faller on the FTSE 100 blue-chip index.

An analyst at Ambrian said many investors would feel misled by the management who had denied the need for a rights issue in meetings with investors and analysts.

“Management will point to the increased capex plans, but we believe that this will cut little ice with investors,” analyst Angelos Anastasiou said.

Top 10 shareholder Scottish Widows said the rights issue had come rather quickly but that the cash call was necessary to prefund the new investments and safeguard the company’s credit rating.

“If National Grid did not explain how that would be financed, the ratings agencies would say the risk has gone up and we are going to regard them more negatively because it is challenging for any firm to find financing in current markets,” James Clunie told Reuters.

LONDON (Reuters) – National Grid <NG.L> said it was raising 3.2 billion pounds in a rights issue to fund a sharp increase in investment as Britain looks to meet tough environmental targets and keep the lights on.

The gas and electricity transmission network operator said on Thursday it would issue 990 million shares in a 2-for-5 rights issue at 335 pence, a 46 percent discount to Wednesday’s close.

The news had knocked shares in the group down 6.7 percent to 578.5 pence by 8:16 a.m., making National Grid the top blue-chip faller.

Broker Ambrian said many investors would feel misled by the management, who had denied the need for a rights issue.

“Management will point to the increased capex plans, but we believe that this will cut little ice with investors,” analyst Angelos Anastasiou said.

National Grid said it expected to invest 22 billion pounds over the next five years, mostly in replacing ageing UK networks and connecting up new sources of energy, compared with expenditure of 14 billion over the last five years.

“This investment sits at the heart of ensuring we have secure energy supplies and moving to a low carbon economy as we tie in new sources of generation,” Chief Executive Steve Holliday told reporters.

LONDON, May 20 (Reuters) – National Grid <NG.L> said it was raising 3.2 billion pounds ($4.6 billion) in a rights issue to fund a sharp increase in investment as Britain looks to meet tough environmental targets and keep the lights on.

The British gas and electricity transmission network operator said on Thursday it would issue 990 million shares in a 2-for-5 rights issue at 335 pence, a 46 percent discount to Wednesday’s close.

The news had knocked shares in the group down 6.7 percent to 578.5 pence by 0716 GMT, making National Grid the top blue-chip faller.

Broker Ambrian said many investors would feel misled by the management, who had denied the need for a rights issue.

“Management will point to the increased capex plans, but we believe that this will cut little ice with investors,” analyst Angelos Anastasiou said.

National Grid said it expected to invest 22 billion pounds over the next five years, mostly in replacing ageing UK networks and connecting up new sources of energy, compared with expenditure of 14 billion over the last five years.

“This investment sits at the heart of ensuring we have secure energy supplies and moving to a low carbon economy as we tie in new sources of generation,” Chief Executive Steve Holliday told reporters.

LONDON, May 19 (Reuters) – Britain’s Scottish & Southern Energy <SSE.L> said the business environment remained challenging as it met expectations with a 3 percent rise in profit and set out its dividend policy for the next three years.

Chief Executive Ian Marchant declined to give precise guidance for the company’s current financial year, which ends March 2011.

“We don’t see the next 12 months being much different from the past 24 to be honest,” he told reporters on Wednesday.

He said overall demand was hard to measure at the moment because of seasonal effects, with April lower than usual because of the warm weather while colder weather in the last couple of weeks meant May demand was likely to be higher.

“Underlying demand has stopped falling for industrial customers but for domestic customers it’s still coming down because of the energy efficiency effect, not because of the economy,” he said.

Marchant also said SSE was still involved in the bidding process for EDF’s <EDF.PA> UK power networks and, as had been expected, due diligence was revealing a number of operational challenges at the business, such as deteriorating network reliability.

“We believe as an experienced operator that we can tackle those challenges and the question will come down to price,” he said.