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...UK water companies including Thames Water have substantial amounts of such inflation-linked debt....
...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...
...In the letter, Coucher warned that the number of “criminal convictions” faced by water companies was too high....
...“Thames Water is a canary in a coal mine,” said one water company investor. “You’ve got the biggest water company teetering on the brink and we are all watching....
...Two directors, including company secretary Rachael Hambrook, quit parent company Kemble on Thursday in a sign of the water monopoly’s growing distress....
...One person close to Thames Water described the company as “like a flooded room with only an inch of air at the top”....
...“There is a lot of water [still to go] under the bridge,” he said....
...While Elliott is known for its hardball tactics with creditors — for instance seizing an Argentine naval vessel during a protracted tussle with the Latin American nation — British water company legislation...
...Thames Water, the UK’s biggest water company, provides water and sewage services to 16mn people, or around 25 per cent of the population....
...Thames Water has said it has enough cash to last until July next year....
...Thames Water has a complex group structure with seven layers between the parent company and the operating company, which is regulated by Ofwat and collects customer bill payments....
...In today’s newsletter: Thames Water’s Chinese lenders AT1 documents fight Blackstone’s luxury sale Thames Water’s Chinese stand-off Critics of Britain’s water company privatisation have recently accused...
...Troubled UK utility Thames Water has pushed up the amount it plans to spend on its network in its latest business plan by £1.1bn to £19.8bn....
...The bonds were issued by Kemble Water Finance, which sits above the nearly £15bn of debt at the Thames Water utility companies that should be unaffected by the move....
...Macquarie has not had any control or influence over Thames Water’s operating company since 2017.” Thames Water declined to comment....
...Shouting matches between utility companies and regulators are common in the UK....
...It has no security over water company assets. They are inside the ring-fence and the bond is not....
...New York-listed insurer Assured Guaranty had more than $12bn of exposure to UK water companies at the end of 2023, with more than $2bn to Thames Water alone....
...For all the talk about complexity, the business structures of private water companies are straightforward....
...The nearly £15bn of debt held by the Thames Water utility companies that sit below Kemble should be unaffected by the default....
...Other water companies have high gearing too, built up in the decades since their 1989 privatisations....
...Alphabet has announced its first-ever dividend alongside a $70bn stock buyback, in moves cheered by investors as Google’s parent company also reported strong growth across its main business lines....
...Debt is secured by share pledges on the opco vehicle, Thames Water Ltd, so insolvency could mean lenders take possession of a big water company no one wants....
...richard.waters@ft.com...
...The investor resistance to Ofwat’s demands precipitated a default by Thames Water’s parent company last week....
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