OREANDA-NEWS. November 10, 2010. During the first nine months of 2010 AS Tallinna Vesi's total sales increased year on year by 2.1 per cent to 582.3 mln EEK. The Company's underlying operating profit for the first nine months of 2010 from water and wastewater related activities decreased by 6.8 per cent to 292.0 mln EEK compared to the nine months of 2009.

AS Tallinna Vesi's CEO Ian Plenderleith said that the volumes sold to residential customers rose 0.8% in the 3rd quarter of 2010. “We believe that this is mainly due to the combination of the economic conditions getting gradually better during the last year, supported by the hot summer and the increased need for gardening water,” said Plenderleith. The volumes sold to commercial customers inside the main service area also increased compared to last year by 2.4%, this can be attributed to the recovery of the leisure sector.

In total then the Company's operating profit for main and other activities for the 3rd quarter of 2010 was 101.5 mln EEK, a decrease of 8.3 mln compared to the same period in 2009.

As of September this year, the total number of employees was 319 compared to 349 in September 2009. The decrease in staff size is primarily due to reorganization in various departments at the end of 2009. At the end of the quarter, 30 September 2010, the Group consisted of 2 companies. The subsidiary Watercom OU is wholly owned by AS Tallinna Vesi and consolidated to the results of the Company. Watercom OU will focus on pursuing the parent company's non-regulated business opportunities across Estonia.

“A major highlight for AS Tallinna Vesi in the third quarter included another external recognition of the Company's high level corporate transparency, as the Baltic Corporate Governance Institute awarded the Company as the best Corporate Governance in Estonia,” added Plenderleith.

In accordance with the signed Services Agreement the Company submitted the 2011 tariff application to the City of Tallinn. Discussions with City of Tallinn are ongoing and, as in previous years, the application is being analyzed based upon the original business plan and the Ofwat regulatory model. As a consequence of the Anti-Monopoly Bill the City of Tallinn can only recommend but no longer approve the tariffs that will be applied from 1 January 2011, final approval can only be given by the CA. “Therefore, at this point in time the Company is unable to say what next year's tariffs will be as it is unclear at the moment how the CA intends to analyze and proceed with the tariff applications,” said Plenderleith.