London, June 19, 2026, 11:18 (BST)
- National Grid was up 0.38% at 1,194.5 pence as of 10:58 BST. The FTSE 100 edged down 0.08%. Pricing is delayed at least 15 minutes.
- The move made up just some of Thursday’s 2.1% drop. Shares are still down roughly 16% from their 12-month high of 1,428.5 pence.
- National Grid won planning approval for its Birkhill Wood substation, which will help link up 4.22 GW of offshore wind. The company has £8.6 billion of investment lined up for Yorkshire and northeast England over the next five years.
National Grid shares ticked up Friday, outpacing a soft London market. Investors looked at the group’s big transmission project as UK borrowing costs pushed higher. The stock regained some ground after Thursday’s drop, though the selling hasn’t fully reversed.
National Grid is heading into a spending push at a time when higher gilt yields are a drag. Stronger UK government bond yields tend to dull the appeal of utility dividends and push up the discount rate investors use for future cash flow. The 10-year gilt yield moved up five basis points to 4.799% on Friday. Two-year gilts got to 4.25%. Political pressure for more public control of energy brings another layer of risk for regulated assets that’s harder to price.
National Grid got planning approval from East Riding of Yorkshire Council for its Birkhill Wood site. The substation will link three planned North Sea wind farms and the company expects to start main construction in spring 2027. SSE Renewables, part of SSE, is one of the developers lined up to use the new connection. “The substation is needed to connect offshore wind farms to meet growing electricity demand,” said National Grid senior project manager Daniel Cohen. National Grid
Berenberg’s Andrew Fisher kept his Hold on National Grid this week, but the firm bumped its London target to 1,350p from 1,300p. That target is about 13% up from where shares closed on Friday. But Fisher still points to worries around valuation, leverage, and delivery. Price targets are estimates, not promises.
National Grid disclosed in a Friday filing that Chief Executive Zoë Yujnovich was granted a conditional award of 450,132 shares. Chief Financial Officer Andy Agg got 246,057 shares as part of the group’s long-term incentive plan. The awards are nil-cost, tied to job and performance targets, and may vest starting June 2029. The filing said these are incentive grants, not shares bought on the open market.
National Grid is committing at least £70 billion through March 2031, with Yujnovich calling it the “largest investment programme in our history.” About two-thirds of that comes under regulatory agreements. The company has locked in supply-chain and delivery deals for roughly three-quarters of the total spend. Management is aiming for 8% to 10% annual underlying earnings-per-share growth. EPS is profit for each share.
Big debt keeps National Grid shares tied to rates. The company posted adjusted operating profit of £5.68 billion in the year ending March, just under the £5.75 billion consensus. Capital spending hit a record £11.6 billion. Net debt climbed 7% to £44.2 billion. Aarin Chiekrie at Hargreaves Lansdown said nearly 80% of the debt has a fixed rate, buffering some of the impact from higher rates.
The risk is easy to see. If planning gets held up, inflation hits construction, or regulators block some costs from going into the asset base, the company’s debt could climb before it sees those earnings. Higher gilt yields would hit the valuation, even if debt is fixed-rate. Tougher talk from politicians on owning utilities or stricter limits set by regulators on allowed returns might also keep investors away.
Friday’s gain isn’t enough to signal a trend shift. Approvals like Birkhill Wood point to National Grid’s investment pipeline making progress. The bigger question for the market is if those projects go into service as planned, stay on budget and deliver returns that help earnings grow without putting fresh pressure on the balance sheet.
