Underlying earnings per share
Underlying earnings per share are in line with our expectations, with higher operating costs in our US business offset by lower finance costs.
Our US business incurred higher costs associated with our significant gas pipe replacement programme, the costs of safely restoring service to customers in Rhode Island following low gas supply into our distribution system in January, as well as increased minor storm costs. These higher than anticipated operating costs were offset by approximately £100m lower interest costs, which benefited from non-recurring items and lower than anticipated RPI-driven costs of index-linked debt.
Headline earnings per share
Headline earnings per share include timing and major storm impacts, which are expected to be equal and offsetting.
Timing impacts:
Full year results will reflect US timing over-recoveries of around $290m. On a Group basis timing is a net benefit to headline earnings per share of approximately 2p. Such timing differences have no impact on long-term financial performance, and any incremental benefit will be returned to customers in future years.
Major storm costs:
We expect remediation costs associated with major storms to amount to around 2p on headline earnings per share. These costs are recoverable in future financial years.
National Grid will publish its full year results for 2018/19 on Thursday 16 May 2019.