Thames Water nearing the cliff edge.

You are making reference to the fact that a public service essential to the nation is not owned or run by anyone with the interests of the public at heart.

Instead, it is owned and looted by organisations dedicated to extracting the maximum money out of it, and providing the lowest standards they can get away with.

So what you saying ? The French are involved with Thames water ??

Your description sounds like foreign / French (?) investors ??
 
So you turned down free shares. Yer, right!
I answered your question, so why don't you answer my6 questions?

Oh that's right, the ignorant troll has been shown up yet again :LOL:
 
"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.

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.

The lenders, which have so far refused to extend the loan without an injection of fresh equity from Thames Water’s owners, are Chinese state-owned Bank of China and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), as well as Allied Irish Banks and Dutch lender ING, according to people familiar with the matter.

This means that in case of a default on the loan, the two Beijing-owned banks could become shareholders of Thames Water."

FT.com
 
"Thames Water parent company says it has defaulted on debt

Formal notice to bondholders fires starting gun on potentially messy restructuring"

FT.com

"On Friday, one of the holding companies that owns Thames Water announced that interest payments due earlier this week on a £400mn bond “have not been paid” and it issued a “formal notice of default”.

The bonds were issued by Kemble Water Finance, which sits above the nearly £15bn of debt at the Thames Water utility companies. Those companies should be unaffected by the move. Kemble last week told bondholders that it intended to stop paying interest on bonds.

The default threatens to wipe out the stakes of Thames Water’s nine shareholders, which include the Chinese and Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth funds as well as Canadian and UK pension funds. The shareholders last week said that actions by water regulator Ofwat had made the company “uninvestable”.
 
if people noticed all of the news they might be aware that various water companies have wanted to increase prices for sometime to invest and sort out various problems. Gov says no. Cost of living etc.

You could also have spotted cut backs on monitoring water quality etc.

Austerity into a cesspit????
 
"Thames Water shareholders backed away from supporting the group after the UK regulator demanded they slash the company’s debt pile and make other structural changes they calculated would cost as much as £8bn.

The backtracking last month on previous commitments to invest £500mn in the troubled utility capped weeks of tension between Ofwat and Thames Water’s shareholders, which include the sovereign wealth funds of China and Abu Dhabi.

The investor resistance to Ofwat’s demands precipitated a default by Thames Water’s parent company last week."

FT.com
 
Thames Water has just six weeks to convince its regulator that it has a viable survival plan for its business, the Guardian can reveal. While the company believes it has enough cash to survive for about 15 months, insiders and investors fear that it must move quickly to strike a deal with its watchdog to stave off insolvency.

The UK’s largest water monopoly must present a new turnaround strategy and business plan before 23 May – Ofwat’s final board meeting before it issues a verdict on how much water companies will be allowed to charge consumers. Raising bills without a clear strategy to overhaul how the business is managed risks pushing the burden of poor business decisions on to customers, something Ofwat is not prepared to do, sources said.
 
As I understand it, the owners think it needs £8billion, and would rather walk away.
 
The great thing about being a privatised utility is the guarantee the government will bail you out
 
I would be willing for the nation to take over the company, but not to bail out the shareholders.
When a company has a negative value it must be an ideal time to re nationalise.
 
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