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...UK water companies including Thames Water have substantial amounts of such inflation-linked debt....
...He said that even though convictions “lag the financial year in question”, they still needed to be considered when boards were deciding on dividends and that the basis of the decision needed to be explained...
...Thames Water and Southern Water only mapped the pipes as they worked on them, leaving a large proportion of the network unchecked, the two companies revealed in responses to freedom of information requests...
...“To achieve this water companies have proposed a record £96bn of investment — a near-doubling of current levels.”...
...The water companies tend to have corporate structures with multiple layers, many of which exist to raise finance....
...Many of Thames Water’s 16mn customers might feel the same way about the state of water 35 years after Margaret Thatcher’s government privatised England’s water companies....
...The nine directors on Tideway’s board received a total of £6.6mn in the year to March 2023; up from £2.95mn in 2022, according to Tideway’s accounts....
...Desalination taps an almost infinite resource — some 97 per cent of the world’s water is in seas and oceans. Costs have plummeted....
...The board of Thames Water, Britain’s largest water company, was locked in crisis talks on Wednesday after shareholders refused to confirm they would provide about £3bn of fresh equity that is necessary for...
...But Gonzalo Delacámara, director of the Center for Water and Climate Adaptation at IE University, said the robustness of Spain’s water system so far had allowed a certain “cognitive dissonance”....
...Thames Water also requires a further £2.5bn before 2030 to fund its investment plan and maintain assets. Ofwat has told the board to “pursue all options to seek further equity”....
...I once asked a director of one of the main water companies what input they received from the political level....
...Only about 15 per cent of the country’s water resources have been developed. Almost all farmers depend on rain, as they are not able to store rainwater or pump water from rivers....
...Another indebted rival, Southern Water, secured a new backer in 2021. Frankly, Thames’ board lacks the restructuring nous to handle this end-game....
...The ongoing saga involving the UK’s largest water company took a new turn yesterday after Thames Water said its shareholders were unwilling to stump up £500mn of fresh equity....
...This is a big test of UK capitalism. Get Thames Water right and the case for private ownership of utilities will be enhanced....
...Not so many may be aware of what a big guzzler of natural resources it is....
...Concerns over the future of Britain’s biggest water provider reached a peak this week when investors refused to inject £3bn of much-needed equity, despite nearly a year of negotiations with the water industry...
...Thames Water, the UK’s biggest water company, provides water and sewage services to 16mn people, or around 25 per cent of the population....
...If they withdraw, Thames Water could be forced to enter the government’s special administration regime, a form of temporary renationalisation....
...A period of temporary public stewardship is generally framed as a worst-case scenario in discussions about the future of Britain’s biggest privatised water utility....
...Yet the challenges confronting the likes of Thames Water and many others among the UK’s 17 suppliers of water and sewerage services do smack unnervingly of the issues that banks faced in the period running...
...Money is more important than water to the daily functioning of financial markets, so the GFC had a sense of urgency lacking in the Thames Water crisis....
...One of the holding companies that owns Thames Water on Friday said interest payments due earlier this week on a £400mn bond “have not been paid” as it issued a “formal notice of default”....
...and mistrust of England’s privatised water system....
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