United Kingdom

4332 readers

92 users here now

General community for news/discussion in the UK.

Less serious posts should go in [email protected] or [email protected]
More serious politics should go in [email protected].

Try not to spam the same link to multiple feddit.uk communities.
Pick the most appropriate, and put it there.

Posts should be related to UK-centric news, and should be either a link to a reputable source, or a text post on this community.

Opinion pieces are also allowed, provided they are not misleading/misrepresented/drivel, and have proper sources.

If you think "reputable news source" needs some definition, by all means start a meta thread.

Posts should be manually submitted, not by bot. Link titles should not be editorialised.

Disappointing comments will generally be left to fester in ratio, outright horrible comments will be removed.
Message the mods if you feel something really should be removed, or if a user seems to have a pattern of awful comments.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Thames Water owner seeks more time to pay debts to lenders such as ING, AIB and two Chinese state-controlled banks (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

4 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The group of lenders to Kemble Water Finance include ING, Allied Irish Banks (AIB) and the Chinese state-owned Bank of China and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the Financial Times and Sky News reported.

China’s role in UK infrastructure has been under the spotlight since telecoms groups were forced to strip out Huawei equipment from the UK network and Chinese backers of the Sizewell C nuclear power project were eased out amid security fears.

The announcement raised the prospect of Thames, which has 16 million customers, being temporarily nationalised if it slips into a government-handled administration. Rishi Sunak appears reluctant to pursue this route, although a government project team is examining contingency plans for Thames’s collapse.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

The Dutch bank ING and two Chinese state-owned lenders could play a crucial role in deciding the fate of beleaguered Thames Water, it has emerged.

The banks are expected to agree an extension on a £190m loan to the parent company of Britain’s biggest water supplier, which is due to be repaid at the end of this month.

Rishi Sunak appears reluctant to pursue this route, although a government project team is examining contingency plans for Thames’s collapse.

Ahead of the meeting, the GMB national officer Gary Carter said he would “demand there are no cuts to work force numbers – or terms and conditions”.

He said: “Any cost-cutting measures being considered by Thames will only be a sticking plaster and will not address the root cause of the company’s problems – a lack of investment by shareholders stretching back decades.”

Even assuming that lenders will agree to amend and extend the £190m loan due on 30 April 2024, this agreement would probably constitute a distressed debt exchange under our criteria.”

The original article contains 599 words, the summary contains 171 words. Saved 71%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!