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...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....
...Two directors, including company secretary Rachael Hambrook, quit parent company Kemble on Thursday in a sign of the water monopoly’s growing distress....
...“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....
...Thames Water’s immediate parent company Kemble Water Finance has a £190mn loan, which shareholders last week said they would be unable to repay when it matures on April 30....
...One person close to Thames Water described the company as “like a flooded room with only an inch of air at the top”....
...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....
...Abby L Watson President, Groundwire Strategies Norristown, PA, US...
...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....
...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....
...The hedge fund has stayed clear of bonds at Thames Water’s holding company Kemble, however, which sit outside the regulatory ringfence and are trading at less than 15 pence....
...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....
...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...
...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....
...richard.waters@ft.com...
...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....
...Revenue at Google’s parent company rose to $80.5bn from $69.8bn a year ago, beating analysts’ expectations for $79bn, according to a filing on Thursday....
...While Thames Water’s management has long insisted that Kemble’s travails should not have an impact on the regulated utility, the water company’s bonds also traded down....
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