CMA mulling over Pennon-SES deal

Watchdog the Competition and Markets Authority said on Tuesday that it may accept Pennon Group's solutions to address concerns regarding the water utility outfit's purchase of Sutton and East Surrey Water, potentially clearing a path for the deal to go through.

The CMA previously said the deal may hinder water regulator Ofwat by removing SES Water from its dataset and reducing the number of comparators available to estimate cost allowances and set service quality targets. However, Pennon has now offered to provide separate reporting information for SES from the rest of its water businesses upon completion of the deal.

"CMA considers that there are reasonable grounds for believing that the undertakings offered by Pennon, or a modified version of them, might be accepted by the CMA to remedy the prejudice identified by the CMA," the regulator said.

The CMA now has until 16 July to decide whether or not it will approve the deal or delve deeper into the matter.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com