Thames Water will request the approval of an emergency life buoy in court on Monday, because she faces lack of money in four weeks.
Lenders to the Debt Suté company offer up to 3 billion pounds in additional short -term loans To buy time to finish a major restructuring of the largest waste of waste and waste in the United Kingdom.
Failure to comply with approval will allow Thames to get closer to temporary nationalization, which could cost the government about 2 billion pounds sterling per year.
The company still plans to call on a decision of the supply industry regulator of the offer to increase invoices by 35% above inflation in the next five years – less from the 53% increase for which she asked.
Thames Water has been struggling for some time and has been strongly criticized on his performances following a series of discharges and leaks.
The disastrous state of the company’s finance appeared about 18 months ago when it started looking for funding to avoid collapse.
Thames fiasco is a combination of poor historical regulations, eager shareholders, climate change and management failure. His heap of debt is currently about 17 billion pounds sterling.
But regardless of what happens to the company in the future, the water supply to households will normally continue.
In the last attempt to survive, lenders offered Thames another loan of up to 3 billion pounds sterling in two payments.
The first payment is to pass it up in the fall, and a second must be used if the company decides to call against the 35% bill of the OFWAT in competition and the authority markets (CMA) – A process that could take up to a year.
The company has until February 18 to appeal to the CMA.
The Rothschilds investment bank also requests offers to take control of the company and inject essential funds.
The judicial hearing on Monday is scheduled for four days with a possible extension because a much smaller group of lenders disputes the terms of the rescue buoy and offer an alternative.
Although the Thames will not collapse immediately if the agreement is not approved by the judge, the initiates have recognized that the company will approach temporary nationalization – a so -called special administration regime – in the event of ‘failure.
The government has already struck a number of consultants to take this if the situation occurs.
The company wanted to emphasize that whatever happens, its services at 16 million customers would continue without interruption, but major questions about the future of the Thames and other key infrastructure providers were asked.
Some maintain that the Thames should be authorized to go bankrupt and that the government takes up the company because it is the architect of his own misfortune. The previous owners instructed the debt company, withdrew large dividends and paid the managers. Cavier in his requests so that customers can pay more now for a failure service would be a raw injustice.
Others say that poor regulations have allowed this waste. The invoices have been maintained too low for too long, which has hampered investment in the aging infrastructure which is now overwhelmed by a more humid climate. Ofwat fights the battle yesterday and aggravates things by imposing fines of tens of millions of pounds for failures, thus depriving the business of the funds more to repair the very things for which it is condemned to a fine.
What the Thames and the Ministers agree with it is that neither of them want this sprawling company in government books. The Teneo Council predicted that a temporary nationalization would cost up to 2 billion pounds sterling per year.
However, a broader argument, perhaps more important, is that the failure of the Thames as a private company would send an unnecessary message to international investors that Chancellor Rachel Reeves hopes will invest in hundreds of billions in British airports , wind farms, rail links and everything else on its long list of growth reinforcement projects.
Sources close to the company and its creditors argue that we cannot take care and regulate past errors. We are where we are – between a rock and a hard place. Cuelle a special affair for the Thames – or risk its collapse.
The Thames has a little more than two weeks to call on the CMA to increase the invoices it is authorized to invoice. It is not without risk – the CMA could revise them.
Last week, the president of the CMA was forced The ministers not impressed by the emphasis put by the regulator on growth. Thames says he needs higher invoices to invest 20 billion pounds sterling in the next five years. This will be an interesting case for the new chair.
