We have a large shareholder base of just over 1.1 million, mainly resulting from the complex nature of the privatisation of the UK electricity and gas industries. Of these, approximately 91% own 500 or fewer shares.

Our aim is to ensure that the value of our business is reflected in our share price. We aim to make National Grid attractive to debt investors so that we can finance our operations as effectively as possible.

We continue to be active in communicating with equity investors, conducting over 300 investor meetings during the year, maintaining a presence at 18 investor conferences, presenting to 10 broker sales teams and holding 2 investor days in October 2008. One of our objectives is to increase the number of shareholders in the US and one of our investor days was a presentation to our US investors.

We also presented to debt investors in 12 countries including Japan, across Europe and North America.

Shareholder networking

We also operate a shareholder networking programme, the aim of which is to allow shareholders to gain a better understanding of the business. The programme includes visits to operational sites and presentations by senior managers and employees.