About

About the summit

Utilities have long been known to investors as a safe port in a storm, offering reliable returns through the most troubling economic downturns. The trials of 2020 have proved the adage once again - while other sectors and industries have faltered, utilities have remained largely resilient.

This said, the sector still faces looming challenges which will test the strength of business-investor relations through 2021 and could significantly alter the investment proposition for some utilities in the longer run.

For regulated monopolies, the threats posed by climate change, coupled with austere regulatory frameworks for new and upcoming price controls mean there is huge demand for an injection of capital into clean infrastructure even as returns come under heavy downward pressure.

In retail markets meanwhile, deepening issues with customer arrears and debt are exacerbating an already precarious situation for many suppliers, making it all the harder for firms to bring forward the innovations in business models and customer propositions which could allow players in this arena to exit a damaging race-to-the-bottom style of low margin competition which has become the norm.

The implications of these trends and more will be explored at Utility Week’s Investor Summit 2021. Now in its second year, the event will invite policy and regulatory leaders to clarify their strategies for promoting investor confidence in the UK utilities industry and foster discussion between management and investor representatives of the business strategies, technology applications and reporting approaches which will best allow utilities to deliver for their investors, while also meeting their increasingly stretching social contract obligations.

As the world readies itself for a year of energetic economy recovery in 2021, Utility Week’s Investor Summit provides an unmissable opportunity for investors and company executives as well as policy and regulatory leaders to refine their understanding of market dynamics and shape their strategies through learning, engaging in debate and networking with peers.