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...There are also class-action claims brought by campaign groups. In the letter, Coucher warned that the number of “criminal convictions” faced by water companies was too high....
...These kinds of search results, which include an “AI-powered snapshot”, are more costly for Google to serve up than its traditional responses because generative AI consumes a lot more computing resources....
...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....
...Colm Gibson, managing director of Berkeley Research Group, said that “companies will need material bill increases to deliver the improvements in the sewage and water networks promised”....
...The group’s loan comes as concerns grow over the financial stability of Thames Water, which is struggling under an £18bn group debt mountain....
...Lenders may agree to an extension but they are also seeking clarity over whether Thames Water will be allowed to continue to pay dividends to companies in the wider group, including Kemble, to service debts...
...Ruling out the dividends could ultimately trigger an administration process by Kemble, which could have a domino effect on Thames Water as there would be increased uncertainty over the group’s ability to...
...The implementation of the scheme follows years of political friction between water companies, local government planners and environmentalists over management of the region’s water resources....
...The £515mn increase in debt at Kemble has pushed the group’s consolidated borrowings to over £18bn, having risen from just over £15bn as of March 31 2022....
...This month, the parent company of Thames, the UK’s biggest water group, defaulted on a £400mn bond, part of the group’s £18.3bn stack of debt....
...Contagion risks include greater regulatory scrutiny for other firms, debt becoming more expensive and short sellers zoning in on the shares of publicly traded water groups....
...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...
...Hunt said on Wednesday he would not tell a private company how to structure its balance sheet, adding that it would be “completely wrong” if customers at Britain’s biggest water group had to pick up the...
...Frankly, a special administration might offer a cleaner proposition to invest new funds, with a slice of the group’s £18.3bn debt pile removed....
...It currently owns Southern Water as well as about £120mn of debt in Anglian Water....
...The Financial Times on Thursday revealed Kemble’s creditors include two Chinese state-owned banks, part of a group of lenders that were involved in a stand-off over extending a £190mn loan due at the end...
...The group had the backing of the majority of shareholders present for the vote....
...The union that represents the biggest group of members in the USS called on Thursday for the renationalisation of Thames Water....
...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....
...By April 5, Thames Water’s parent group said it had defaulted on payments on a £400mn bond....
...Since then, Thames Water’s group borrowings have grown to £18.3bn as the company passed from owner to owner....
...Things have come to a head at Thames Water, whose £18.3bn group debt is in part a legacy of its 2006-17 ownership by Australia’s Macquarie, which extracted jumbo returns....
...The government is keen to avoid a nationalisation of Thames Water in an election year and is optimistic that, even were Kemble to collapse, it can restructure the group debt or bring in new investors to...
...At the end of 2022, a group of large pension plans, including funds from Canada, Japan and the UK, discovered that they had lost a large part of the £5bn investment in Thames Water that they had recorded...
...Other developments, too, gave water investment new salience in 2023. In May, technology group Xylem completed a $7.5bn acquisition of Pittsburgh-based water treatment company Evoqua....
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