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Thames Water has acquired approval from greater than three-quarters of its top-ranking lenders to take out a brand new mortgage of as much as £3bn and make different changes to its debt that may avert a money crunch shortly after Christmas.
The utility, which serves 16mn prospects in London and surrounding areas, has been battling £19bn of debt and is attempting to keep away from being renationalised beneath the federal government’s particular administration scheme.
Whereas the mortgage nonetheless must be accredited at a Excessive Courtroom listening to subsequent month, the outcomes of the vote imply the plan has handed a key authorized threshold displaying that Thames has assist from a majority of its largest class of bondholders.
The mortgage proposal has come from holders of Thames Water’s top-ranking class A bonds, which account for the majority of its debt. A smaller group of sophistication B bondholders have in latest weeks proposed their very own £3bn plan that they are saying may save the utility tons of of hundreds of thousands of kilos in curiosity and different prices.
A spokesperson for the category A bondholders described it as “a decisive vote of confidence within the first stage of our restructuring plan for Thames Water from a big group of its collectors”.