Digest opened free editor

Rola Khaleda, FT editor, chooses her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.

It was another rugged week for the Times water. Thousands of clients of southern London were left without water after a tube explosion. Financial times I mentioned Half of the sewage factories in the tool lacks tubes and tanks to treat enough wastewater – which leads to the unproductive waste of spill to rivers and waterways. The benefit of the loaded debt resume To raise customer bills by more than 35 percent by 2030, which the Offa regulator allowed, and was wandering in the court on a proposal 3 billion pounds to save the creditor. It is time to get the company out of its misery through the SAR Special Management System – a form of temporary recovery – allowing the restructuring of its irreplaceable resources in the public interest.

Times waterWhich provides a quarter of the UK resident, is the interrelated stickers from the failure of the England experience in the privatization of the previous regional water companies, which were launched with Safar Dion in 1989. Many of their counterparts have benefited from their public budget to the maximum extent to increasing the returns.

The organizational focus has proven on consumer prices and the operating entity, and not on the structures of mysterious companies above it, insufficient. Since the growing interest in the net of the THEMSTER debt, at a value of 16 billion pounds for the first time in financing cases in 2023, the debt has been blown up to nearly 19 billion pounds.

The Supreme Court judge was this month Hearing During the proposed restructuring plan, which includes a loan of 3 billion pounds of first -class bond holders, which includes American hedge funds such as Elliott Management. Funding, at a sharp annual interest rate of 9.75 percent, aims to provide a “bridge” for a wider restructuring, allowing time to raise new shares debt and re -negotiate. The judge is expected to publish his decision this week on whether the plan meets the legal requirements of companies. If he refuses, the Times Water said that it will run out of money by March 24, so it will inevitably be provided in a special management – the first water company in England and Wales has been doing this since since then Privatization.

Even if the rescue plan is given 3 billion pounds, there is no guarantee that the new stock investment will be secured. The court’s financial director told that the total interest bill is expected to reach The highest 200 million pounds. A liberal deputy representative represents the environmental activists about a third Times waterCustomer bills have already gone towards their debt service.

There is a strong argument. The SAR is designed to enable officials to impose a haircut on creditors to reduce the public budget, and to restructure the company to make it viable in the future. The Times managers will be released to focus on operations. The goal should be to return the Times to the market as a stable and private ownership company.

Critics suggested until temporary re -design beloved For government. But the debt interest will be frozen, which liberates the money to invest in infrastructure. Conservative governments and work worked that imposing losses on investors, some of them from abroad, will deter vital investment in other infrastructure projects. But the insolvency process is a natural part of capitalism, to ensure the preservation of productive assets. In this case, it will be the best way to finish the epic of mismanagement, financial engineering and ineffective organization – and increase the chances of the appearance of family business.