The latest in the horrific story of England’s water privatization: The Financial Times reports, “How Thames Water became a battleground for hedge funds”. Rival groups of bondholders are vying to extend loans to the troubled UK utility:
In spring this year, Elliott Management, the $70bn US hedge fund known for circling distressed assets, alighted on a new target: Britain’s largest water company. After scooping up hundreds of millions of pounds of Thames Water’s debt from panicked asset managers willing to sell at a discount, Paul Singer’s Elliott is now one of several hedge funds engaged in a tussle over the future of the troubled utility.
The fact that the utility, which provides water and sewerage services to 16mn customers in and around London, is now host to a fight between some of the US and Europe’s biggest debt specialists underscores its fall from grace in debt markets.
Feargal Sharkey, the former rock musician who now campaigns for cleaner water in Britain and is fiercely critical of industry regulator Ofwat, said:
“Vustomers would pay for this as more of their bills get eaten by savage lenders. Ofwat seems content to allow Thames Water’s debilitated corpse to implode under even yet more debt, while the vulture capitalists and banks look on, licking their lips, eager for a quick buck.”
