If Thames water isnt re-nationalised this nation is doomed.
marketrent on
Excerpts from article by Robert Smith and Gill Plimmer:
*Two major credit agencies have slashed Thames Water’s debt rating into the lowest reaches of junk, piling pressure on the UK’s largest water utility as it runs through cash faster than expected and seeks to avoid a renationalisation.*
*Both S&P and Moody’s cut the rating on Thames Water’s £16bn of top-ranking debt by five notches to the equivalent of CCC+, putting it into so-called triple-C territory that is considered highly risky and prone to default. Thames Water lost its investment-grade credit rating in July.*
*[…] The Financial Times reported on Tuesday that Thames Water was burning cash at a faster rate than it earlier expected, pushing it to try to access back-up liquidity facilities and piling pressure on the company to roll £500mn of debt due in days.*
*Thames Water last week announced it would run out of cash shortly after Christmas if it was not able to get permission from banks to access liquidity reserves and roll certain credit facilities, which would then mean it would have to call a default on its debt to access £550mn of reserve liquidity facilities to have enough cash until May 2025.*
*S&P said this announcement was “contrary” to previous expectations and that owing to “deficiencies in the liquidity risk management” it now assessed Thames Water’s “management and governance as negative”.*
SevenNites on
End the misery nationalise it for £1, government will take over prosecute the executives for failing to invest money they got from costumers into infrastructure they sent the cash to shareholders overseas through dividends
Conscious-Ball8373 on
Welcome to the weird world of public utility financing, where your credit rating can tank but your share price trundles along because you know the government will have to buy you out in the end.
FaceMace87 on
I wonder why other countries didn’t privatise their water companies. Oh yeah because the rest of the world knows it is a fucking stupid idea.
RofiBie on
It needs to fail and be renationalised. Much as I am delighted we have a new Government, I’ll be absolutely pissed if they prop up Anglian Water as it is, rather than taking control of it.
PurahsHero on
What Government should do: Let Thames Water go bankrupt, introduce legislation to buy them for £4 and a pack of Quavers.
What will happen: Bail out of £4bn and Thames Water pinky-swearing not to do it again.
Aaargh_Bees on
Privatising something as basic and essential as water, was always one the stupidest decisions ever made.
Glum_Tradition_9990 on
Good. The shareholders who have been paying themselves millions in dividends and then saying they need to put up bills have no business operating a utility.
Still, gonna be interesting to see how exactly the solution fucks the public and benefit the people who caused this shit in the first place
SnoopyLupus on
They’re the only company I can think of where I’ve always thought they should be charging more. I’m currently paying £15 a month, for my 3 bed house (I’m the only person in it, but still, nothing I have is water efficient! I shower every day, use a dishwasher etc) which is quite a rise from around a year ago when I was paying £13. This just seems ridiculously low.
fredblols on
Thames Water should be allowed to go Bankrupt and NOT renationalised. A new water company should be formed government should NOT pick up the tab. I’m heavily in favour of nationalisation generally, but I imagine this Labour government will end up pursuing the stupidest form of a smart policy…
McChes on
I hope some investigations will be done into the veracity of the declarations of solvency the directors of the company would have had to make before declaring dividends in previous years. These sound like long-term issues and should have been known for a while.
12 Comments
If Thames water isnt re-nationalised this nation is doomed.
Excerpts from article by Robert Smith and Gill Plimmer:
*Two major credit agencies have slashed Thames Water’s debt rating into the lowest reaches of junk, piling pressure on the UK’s largest water utility as it runs through cash faster than expected and seeks to avoid a renationalisation.*
*Both S&P and Moody’s cut the rating on Thames Water’s £16bn of top-ranking debt by five notches to the equivalent of CCC+, putting it into so-called triple-C territory that is considered highly risky and prone to default. Thames Water lost its investment-grade credit rating in July.*
*[…] The Financial Times reported on Tuesday that Thames Water was burning cash at a faster rate than it earlier expected, pushing it to try to access back-up liquidity facilities and piling pressure on the company to roll £500mn of debt due in days.*
*Thames Water last week announced it would run out of cash shortly after Christmas if it was not able to get permission from banks to access liquidity reserves and roll certain credit facilities, which would then mean it would have to call a default on its debt to access £550mn of reserve liquidity facilities to have enough cash until May 2025.*
*S&P said this announcement was “contrary” to previous expectations and that owing to “deficiencies in the liquidity risk management” it now assessed Thames Water’s “management and governance as negative”.*
End the misery nationalise it for £1, government will take over prosecute the executives for failing to invest money they got from costumers into infrastructure they sent the cash to shareholders overseas through dividends
Welcome to the weird world of public utility financing, where your credit rating can tank but your share price trundles along because you know the government will have to buy you out in the end.
I wonder why other countries didn’t privatise their water companies. Oh yeah because the rest of the world knows it is a fucking stupid idea.
It needs to fail and be renationalised. Much as I am delighted we have a new Government, I’ll be absolutely pissed if they prop up Anglian Water as it is, rather than taking control of it.
What Government should do: Let Thames Water go bankrupt, introduce legislation to buy them for £4 and a pack of Quavers.
What will happen: Bail out of £4bn and Thames Water pinky-swearing not to do it again.
Privatising something as basic and essential as water, was always one the stupidest decisions ever made.
Good. The shareholders who have been paying themselves millions in dividends and then saying they need to put up bills have no business operating a utility.
Still, gonna be interesting to see how exactly the solution fucks the public and benefit the people who caused this shit in the first place
They’re the only company I can think of where I’ve always thought they should be charging more. I’m currently paying £15 a month, for my 3 bed house (I’m the only person in it, but still, nothing I have is water efficient! I shower every day, use a dishwasher etc) which is quite a rise from around a year ago when I was paying £13. This just seems ridiculously low.
Thames Water should be allowed to go Bankrupt and NOT renationalised. A new water company should be formed government should NOT pick up the tab. I’m heavily in favour of nationalisation generally, but I imagine this Labour government will end up pursuing the stupidest form of a smart policy…
I hope some investigations will be done into the veracity of the declarations of solvency the directors of the company would have had to make before declaring dividends in previous years. These sound like long-term issues and should have been known for a while.