Page 44 - Privatisation News Today

Yes. lets be clear, the taps arent going to run dry. but the water industry is struggling with large debts and rising interest rates at a time when they really need to be investing in infrastructure. thames water is the largest water company in the uk, serving a quarter of the population. but after securing some £500 million of extra funding from shareholders as recently as march, the company has admitted it is still £1a billion in the red, and climbing interest rates mean there are now concer...

Back into _ company fails and we have to take it back into a _ company fails and we have to take it back into a nationalised company, it is going _ back into a nationalised company, it is going to _ back into a nationalised company, it is going to cost paying out to shareholders — no, we dont. when you buy— shareholders — no, we dont. when you buy shares, you take a risk, the value _ you buy shares, you take a risk, the value can _ you buy shares, you take a risk, the value can go — you ...

City Comment: Water’s ill-suited to privatisation, but the Government can’t afford to renationalise the sector. That means your bills are going up.

Is the highest in five years, and the company has conceded it will not meet its target to reduce them this year. critics cite a legacy of under—investment since privatisation. some of the companies — and also the public regulator 0fwat — deny this and insist investment has been adequate and is rising. yet the total dividends paid to the privatised companies shareholders since 1989, at £72 billion, are equivalent to almost half of total expenditure on capital infrastructure — thats pipes...

Thames water does collapse. so what has gone wrong with the company that supplies water to a quarter of the uks population? and what does this tell us about the privatisation of the wider english and welsh water sector that took place 34 year ago? heres ben. english and welsh water companies were the last of the big privatisations of margaret thatcher s time in office. what was the objective? to encourage efficiency and improve productivity in the sector and deliver private investment by this re...

Democracy, to avoid popular capitalism, to spread ownership of the uks major utilities among the population as a whole. today, there are nine main english regional water and sewerage companies. three are listed on the stock market. but despite the thatcherite ambition of small—scale shareholder democracy, six are owned privately by big foreign pension funds, private equity firms and sovereign wealth funds. the water companies were debt—free at the point of privatisation but, today, their col...

"special administration", similar to that of the energy company bulb, potentially putting the taxpayer on the hook for billions of pounds. the government says the sector as a whole is financially resilient. yet in december, the water regulator 0fwat said it was concerned over the resilience of not only thames water but, and also, three other companies — yorkshire water, portsmouth water and ses water. more than half of the sectors debt, on average, is inflation—linked, putting pressure on co...

Protected in terms of the supply. you are absolutely right, there are bigger questions here, a bigger canvas being looked at. there could, for example, not specifically because of this issue, but in general be price rises for all water customers to pay for this investment backlog and many will be wondering what has happened since privatisation. we know tens of billions of pounds have been taken out of the sector and paid for in dividends, to get right now there is a need for lots more investment...

A one-off 'sugar hit' would soon wear off, says the Maritime Union.

The Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia (CRAN) has talked up the potential benefits of privatising state-owned ICT companies.