Ofwat, the UK water regulator, said it plans to fine Southern Water 20.3 mln stg for misreporting information prior to October 2005 and for poor service to customers. In a statement, Ofwat chief executive officer Regina Finn said: ‘Southern Water deliberately misreported its customer service performance to Ofwat and systematically manipulated information to conceal the company’s true performance over an extended period of time.’ Finn said the company had benefitted from the misreporting at the last two price reviews by being able to raise its prices to customers. However, Southern Water has now been told that the shareholders will bare the brunt of the fine, not the customers.