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...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 Chinese state-owned banks hold a crucial role in the future of Thames Water, as part of a group of lenders involved in a stand-off over debt at the parent company of Britain’s largest water utility....
...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”....
...Thames Water, the UK’s biggest water company, provides water and sewage services to 16mn people, or around 25 per cent of the population....
...The proposal comes as the company struggles with the effect of higher inflation on labour, energy and materials costs, making it more expensive to deliver existing projects....
...He added there were lessons to be learnt from the travails of public sector monopolies such as water companies....
...The company, which supplies 16mn people — or about 25 per cent of the population of England and Wales — is struggling to stay afloat after its shareholders refused to put more money into the heavily leveraged...
...But some investors in other water companies would welcome the move — and soon — to limit fallout for the wider sector....
...The company could be split into a “London Water” company serving the capital and a “Thames Valley” business serving the rest of its area, according to the plans that were leaked to The Guardian newspaper...
...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....
...This should provide a solid backdrop for earnings reports in the coming days. But the questions about AI are only getting louder. richard.waters@ft.com...
...Shouting matches between utility companies and regulators are common in the UK....
...Hell or high water can come to the financing arrangements outside the ringfence and the company providing water services can continue unscathed....
...Kemble’s debt now trades at 13.5 pence in the pound after the water company’s current shareholders backed away from stumping up a promised £500mn of equity and declared the company “uninvestable”, leading...
...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...
...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....
...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....
...Andrés Marín, manager of a Málaga gardening company and spokesman for a group of businesses opposed to the water restrictions, said pool maintenance groups were losing some clients as were gardeners banned...
...Other water companies have high gearing too, built up in the decades since their 1989 privatisations....
...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....
...Macquarie, the former owner of Thames Water criticised for loading the utility with debt, is a lender to its stricken parent company....
...the company....
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