Putting some power into your portfolio

AT THE press of a button we expect our lights to come on and our air cons to start delivering a stream of cool air to make our lives a bit brighter and our living conditions a bit more pleasant.

But all of us are a little guilty of taking those essential services for granted. We won't tolerate power outages. We can't cope when our water supplies are interrupted. But at the same time, we expect those services to be delivered at the lowest possible price.

In some countries, such as Singapore, we are even able to drive down the cost of our utility bills by switching providers at the stroke of a pen. But we seem to forget that utility companies are very capital-intensive businesses. They require a continuous inflow of funds to finance the purchase of new assets and to upgrade existing ones as they age. So, where do those funds come from?