National Grid 2004 Annual Report Download - page 15

None of the Directors (nor any person connected
with them) has a beneficial interest or non-
beneficial interest in the share capital of the
Company. None of the Directors (nor any person
connected with them) holds any interest in any
other securities, including options over the
Company’s shares, of the Company.
Donations
Charitable donations of £560,000 were made in
2003/04. In addition to these contributions,
Transco provides financial and in-kind support to
many other organisations through its community
involvement programme.
No donations were made in the UK and EU for
the purposes of the Political Parties, Elections
and Referendums Act 2000.
Payment to suppliers
Transco’s ultimate parent company, National
Grid Transco, is a signatory to the
Confederation of British Industry (CBI) Prompt
Payment Code and has procedures to ensure
the payment of invoices in accordance with
contract terms. Copies of the CBI Prompt
Payment Code may be obtained from the CBI,
Centre Point, 103 New Oxford Street, London
WC1A 1DU.
The average creditor payment period at
31 March 2004 was 32 days.
Research and development
Expenditure on research and development
was £4 million in 2003/04 compared with
£8 million in 2002/03.
Auditors
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP have indicated
their willingness to be re-appointed auditors of
the Group.
Statement of Directors’ responsibilities for
preparing the financial statements
The Directors are required by the Companies
Act 1985 to prepare financial statements for
each financial year which give a true and fair
view of the state of affairs of the Company and
of the Group as at the end of the financial year
and of the profit or loss of the Group for the
financial year.
The Directors consider that in preparing the
financial statements detailed in the following
sections, the Company has used appropriate
accounting policies, consistently applied and
supported by reasonable and prudent
judgements and estimates and all applicable
accounting standards have been followed:
Accounting Policies, Accounts, Notes to the
Accounts and Operating and Financial Review.
The Directors have responsibility for ensuring that
the Company keeps accounting records which
disclose with reasonable accuracy the financial
position of the Company and of the Group and
which enable them to ensure that the financial
statements comply with the Companies Act 1985.
The Directors have general responsibility for taking
such steps as are reasonably open to them to
safeguard the assets of the Group and to prevent
and to detect fraud and other irregularities.
The Directors, having prepared the financial
statements, have requested the Auditors
to take whatever steps and to undertake
whatever inspections they consider appropriate
for the purposes of enabling them to give their
audit report.
Annual General Meeting
The Annual General Meeting will be held at
10am on 19 July 2004 at NGT House,
Warwick Technology Park, Gallows Hill,
Warwick CV34 6DA.
On behalf of the Board
Alison Kay
Company Secretary
26 May 2004
Registered Office:
1-3 Strand, London WC2N 5EH
Registered in England and Wales No. 2006000
Directors’ interests in share options
Beneficial Weighted
holding at Beneficial average
1 April 2003 holding at exercise price
or on
31 March per share
appointment Lapsed Granted Exercised 2004 (pence) Normal exercise period
Colin Buck (ii) 55,702 – 1,200 1,326 55,576 474.53 Jun 2003 – Jun 2012
Jim O’Sullivan 16,358 – – – 16,358 425.91 Dec 2005 – Dec 2012
Mark Fairbairn (ii) 101,721(i) – – – 101,721 503.13 Jun 2001 – Jun 2012
All interests are in options over shares in National Grid Transco plc, Transco’s ultimate parent undertaking.
(i) As at appointment date.
(ii) In addition to the interests shown above Colin Buck and Mark Fairbairn hold interests in the National Grid Share Matching Scheme as follows:-
No of Purchase Matching
Date of grant shares price (pence) option*
Colin Buck June 2001 980 579.50 1,634
Colin Buck June 2002 733 478.25 1,223
Colin Buck June 2003 1,129 402.75 1,940
Mark Fairbairn June 2001 1,117 579.50 1,862
Mark Fairbairn June 2002 1,176 478.25 1,960
Mark Fairbairn June 2003 1,419 402.75 2,437
* The Matching Option is exercisable at £1.00 per option, between three and ten years from the date of grant.
(iii) Options were given under the Executive Share Option Schemes, Sharesave Schemes and Share Matching Scheme operated by ultimate parent
undertaking and details of each scheme are given in the annual report and accounts of that company.
Annual Report and Accounts 2003/04_Transco plc 13
General Information_continued