LONDON, June 28 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The UK government is working on plans to nationalise Thames Water, Sky News reports.
The indebted utility, which lost its chief executive on Tuesday, may be placed into a special administration regime, with ministers worrying about the company's ability to shoulder 14 billion pounds of debt.
UK water companies, privatised by Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s, were supposed to be sleepy investments churning out inflation-proof dividends.
Thames, owned by Macquarie (MQG.AX) until 2017, had debt equivalent to 80% of its 17.9 billion pounds regulator-defined asset value last September.
Its current shareholders, which include Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System and China Investment Corporation, last year pledged to invest 1.5 billion pounds to prop it up.
Persons:
Margaret Thatcher, Neil Unmack, Eli Lilly, Aston Martin, George Hay, Streisand Neto
Organizations:
Reuters, Sky News, Macquarie, System, China Investment Corporation, Twitter, Thomson
Locations:
Thames, Yorkshire, Ontario, Canada