• Continued strong progress with the PacifiCorp Transition Plan
• Restoration of Hunter Power Station outage expected in May
• Vigorously pursuing regulatory recovery of excess US wholesale purchases
• Good financial and operating performance from UK businesses
• Stronger focus on energy customers
• ScottishPower and The Royal Bank of Scotland to exit their joint venture
• Operating profit* up £116 million at £697 million
• Profit before tax* unchanged at £441 million
• Earnings per share* down 25% to 21.06p reflecting UK regulation and Hunter outage
• Third quarter dividend per share of 6.51p up 5% on an annualised basis in line with stated aim

* For the nine months to 31 December 2000 before exceptional items and goodwill amortisation

Overview
The third quarter to 31 December 2000 has seen good underlying performances across all our major businesses. However, financial performance in comparison to the previous year has been adversely affected by the impact of the UK regulatory reviews and the plant outage at Hunter, Utah, at a time of rising energy prices in the western US. The PacifiCorp Transition Plan targets continue to be met and we remain on schedule to exceed our forecast savings for the full year. We are vigorously pursuing regulatory recovery in the US of the high power prices which have affected our earnings. In the UK, our infrastructure businesses are performing well, with cost-cutting and efficiency programmes meeting their targets. We have halted the declining trend in customer numbers reported at the half-year in our Customer Sales and Services business, while maintaining margins. We now intend to concentrate on the supply of energy products to our customers and by mutual agreement ScottishPower and The Royal Bank of Scotland have agreed to exit their joint venture. Our telecoms subsidiary, Thus, achieved improved sales growth in the quarter, benefiting from the scale effects of contracts with business customers won in the first half of the financial year, and reduced its EBITDA loss through tighter control of operating costs.

Outlook
Our UK businesses have performed strongly. Our Customer Sales and Services business now has a sharper focus on energy customers and continues to win new customers. The PacifiCorp Transition Plan targets continue to be met and we remain on schedule to exceed our forecast savings for the full year. We are vigorously pursuing the recovery of high US power costs through the regulatory process. Despite the current western US power market issues, we believe that the US offers good opportunity for creation of shareholder value. After adjusting for the Hunter outage the outlook for the full year to March 2001 continues to remain in line with management's expectations.

Further Information:
Dominic Fry,                        Director of Corporate Affairs       020 7651 2000
Colin McSeveny,                Group Media Relations Manager   020 7651 2000
Andrew Jamieson,                 Head of Investor Relations       020 7651 20000