The company, which supplies water across the UK's Midlands, said full-year ODI would be ahead of its previous guidance of 15 million pounds, but said there were two unpredictable winter months still to come.

The company said it now expects to at least meet or exceed ODI of 23.2 million pounds for the year ended March 31 on a pretax basis at 2012/2013 prices.

Water companies are rewarded when they meet or exceed target, and are penalised if they fail to meet targets. These targets include timely project completions and better customer services.

(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri)