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UTILITY WEEK | 1ST - 7TH MAY 2015 | 19 Finance & Investment Stock watch 275 270 265 260 255 CENTRICA SHARE PRICE, 23 APRIL - 28 APRIL 23 Apr 24 Apr 27 Apr 28 Apr 350 300 250 200 CENTRICA SHARE PRICE, MAY 2014 - APRIL 2015 Jul Oct Jan Apr 2014 2015 Centrica chairman Rick Haythornthwaite said at the company's AGM that it has made preparations in case it is approached with a takeover offer. Analysts at RBC Capital said it is not surprising that Centrica might be a target after the election and CMA probe. "It has underperformed on the weak commodity environment but remains a company with a strong competitive position," it said. Centrica is trading at two-month highs. This week Citi to sell £2bn stake in Yorkshire Water US bank's plan to dispose of 30% stake in parent company Kelda Water triggers investor scramble Citi Group has sparked an investor scramble around Yorkshire Water aer the US-owned bank announced its intention to sell its £2 billion stake in the company. Citi is looking to sell its 30 per cent share in York- shire Water's parent com- pany, Kelda Water, which it acquired in 2008 as part of a £3 billion takeover that it led alongside GIC, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund. Two of the other three shareholders, Deutsche Bank and M&G, are also reportedly looking to sell their 23 and 10 per cent stakes, respectively. GIC is said to want to retain its 26 per cent stake. Citi has recruited Evercore investment bank to find a buyer for its stake. Yorkshire Water said: "We are aware of Citi's decision to review its investment in Kelda. It is not unusual for companies to trade their investments." Citi's plan to sell its stake in Kelda Water follows a credit rating downgrade of the water company by Moody's, which said it was concerned about the impact of low interest rates and the company's debt-hedging strategy. The announcement also follows Ofwat chairman Jonson Cox's comments at the end of last year in which he called for "dynamic and differentiated" approaches to any merger and acquisition activity. MB ENERGY Centrica 'ready for takeover bids' Centrica chairman Rick Hay- thornthwaite has told sharehold- ers that the company is prepared for possible takeover bids. At the annual general meet- ing Haythornthwaite said the company has made preparations in case it is approached with a takeover offer. Reuters reported that he said: "Do we have, as a matter of just good governance, an approach to dealing with potential takeovers? Absolutely we do." Centrica declined to comment last summer on market rumours that it was in talks with Qatar over a takeover bid. Reports of possible takeover talks also surfaced in 2011 and 2012. But RBC Capital said it does not believe a takeover is likely before the UK general election next week, or before the CMA review ends. ENERGY Eon names Uniper board members Eon has revealed the manage- ment structure for the spin-off company created to focus on Eon's upstream interests, which it says will be named Uniper. Eon's current CFO Klaus Schafer will be chief executive of Uniper and Michael Sen, CFO of Siemens healthcare, will take on his position at Eon from 1 June. Eon Group veteran Christo- pher Delbruck will join Uniper as its new CFO alongside Schafer. Uniper will be based in Dusseldorf where the wider Eon is currently located. Eon will move its headquarters to Essen to be closer to its networks and renewables business. Eon announced last year, that it would split the business operations between emerging energy market trends and the continued need for conventional security of supply. ENERGY Profits up at Dong despite low gas price Dong Energy has reported that its net profit increased nearly 12 per cent to 1.7 billion Danish kroner (£160 million), despite recent fall in oil and gas prices. However, the Danish energy supplier reported a drop of nearly 5 per cent in pre-tax profits to 6 billion Danish kroner (£5.8 bil- lion) for Q1 2015 compared with the same period last year. Dong said the decrease was the result of the "positive impact" in Q1 2014 of the partial divestment of the London Array offshore windfarm. Chief executive Henrik Poulsen said: "Despite a large divestment gain in Q1 2014 and the fall in oil and gas prices in 2014, we are posting almost unchanged Ebitda for Q1 2015." Kelda: downgraded by Moody's