AGM Statement

Drax Group PLC
17 April 2008


17 April 2008

                                 Drax Group plc
                           ('Drax' or the 'Company')
                                  Symbol: DRX

                                 AGM Statement


Drax holds its AGM at 11:00am today at the City Presentation Centre, Chiswell
Street, London. At this meeting Gordon Horsfield, Chairman of Drax, will make
the following comments:


' Let me first say one or two things by way of introduction in respect of:

   • the Company's financial and operational performance;
   • HM Revenue & Customs position on so-called 'disguised interest';
   • our strategic focus;
   • returns to shareholders; and
   • the composition of your Board.


Taking each of these in turn, let me remind you of our principal performance
indicators and operational achievements.


During 2007:

   • Total revenue from Generation was £1,247 million
   • Average achieved price of electricity was to £45.3 per MWh
   • Net sales were 24.9TWh
   • Gross Profit was £701 million
   • EBITDA was £506 million
   • Lost time injury rate was 0.34
   • Plant availability performance was 86%
   • High commercial despatch with a load factor of 75%


In a year which saw significant volatility in the commodity markets and major
planned outages on two of our units I believe these results reflect great credit
to everyone in the Drax team. Although financial markets tend to focus on the
value of Drax based upon extrapolations of relevant commodity prices, ultimately
it is the skills, commitment and performance of all our employees applied to
those market circumstances and to the physical assets for which they care that
delivers the results and real value to our shareholders.


Since our results presentation on 4 March, commodity market conditions for Drax
have been good. Power prices, underpinned by firm gas and oil prices, have
risen. Coal prices are at a similar level, whilst carbon prices have risen again
supported by firm gas prices. The combined effect has been an overall increase
in the dark green spread continuing the improving trend we have seen over the
last nine months.

Overall, we continue to trade in line with expectations reflecting our 
previously announced 2008 contracted position for power, but including 
deliveries already made in the year to date, of 20.5TWh and the market 
factors described above.


I should now like to turn to a tax matter affecting the group. In our
preliminary results statement on 4 March, we referred to an HM Revenue & 
Customs consultation document issued in December 2007 which was initially 
expected to lead to the introduction of new legislation concerning disguised 
interest from April 2008. However, following statements included in the 
Chancellor's 2008 Budget delivered to the House of Commons on 12 March, we now 
understand that the consultation period is to be extended, with a view to 
disguised interest legislation being introduced one year later, that is with 
effect from April 2009.


As we previously stated, if introduced in the form currently envisaged, the new
rules could adversely impact our tax rate in future years. However, until the
consultation process is complete and the proposed legislation is released, it is
not possible to predict with any certainty how, if and when enacted, these new
rules might affect our future effective tax rate; we are therefore keeping this
situation under active review.

Let me turn now to strategy. Over the last two years our attention has been on
delivering the strategy we set out upon listing the Company in December 2005.
This was to focus initially on the better alignment of our trading and
production strategies, developing fuel optionality and securing better
operational performance all as a basis for delivering shareholder value. In part
this was also to be achieved as a direct result of removal of certain onerous
restrictions within the previous financing arrangements which restricted the
ability of the management team to deliver optimum performance from the business.
We believe in the last two years we have successfully achieved this first step.


Whilst maintaining the leading performances we have achieved in production and
trading, our strategic focus continues to be on delivering value growth for our
shareholders. The changes which have taken place within the regulatory
environment over recent times present both challenges and opportunities. We plan
to increase shareholder value through developing our core competencies to
deliver significant fuel diversification and carbon abatement, which in the near
term will be through the successful implementation of our two major investment
programmes, which will see our high and low pressure turbines upgraded, and our
burn of renewable biomass through co-firing significantly increased.


Over the next decade we believe that the electricity wholesale market of Great
Britain will provide increasing returns to available capacity as the retirement
of some of the older plant currently on the system occurs and reduces the margin
of installed capacity above system demand. This will be positive for Drax; our
strategic position and the focus we have given to our development programme make
us well placed to deliver value growth to our shareholders relative to the
commodity markets in which we operate.

As you are aware a resolution is to be proposed to the meeting for payment of a
final dividend of 9.9 pence per share together with a special dividend of 7.8
pence per share. If the resolution is passed, a further £60 million will be
returned to shareholders in May. When added to the interim dividend paid in
October and the share buy-back programme undertaken in the last quarter of 2007,
this brings the total return to shareholders in respect of 2007 to £160 million.


The composition of your Board is undergoing some change, with two of its current
members leaving Drax during the course of 2008.


Gordon Boyd, Finance Director has advised us that he has decided to leave Drax
in the second half of this year. On behalf of the Board I should like to thank
him for his hard work and commitment and for the step changes in our business
control systems and reporting which he helped achieve. He will leave with our
very best wishes for his future. The process to find a successor is well
underway.


This is also the last AGM over which I will preside, as I am retiring as a
non-executive director and Chairman of Drax at the close of this meeting. I am
very pleased that Charles Berry, who joined the Board in December 2005, will
succeed me as Chairman.


It has been a privilege to serve as chairman of Drax and lead it through a
period of significant change over nearly five years. I have gained enormous
satisfaction from drawing together an exceptionally talented team and to have
worked closely with its members as the business has developed. I have every
confidence in the future of Drax and in the leadership which Charles will bring
to the Board.'


Enquires:

Investor Relations
Andrew Jones
[phone]


Media

Drax Group plc
Melanie Wedgbury
[phone]

Tulchan Communications
David Trenchard
[phone]


Website: www.draxgroup.plc.uk






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