How does this benefit shareholders? They lose most of their money.From Darren Jones MP:
Corporate greed playbook:
Load company with debt
Dividends, exec pay and debt finance up
Investment, worker pay and customer service quality down
Company goes bust
Shareholders and execs walk away with millions
Taxpayer picks up the pieces
Rinse and repeat.
Thames Water about to go bust…
- Thread starter sherlock
- Start date
Littlejimmy
Well-known member
Sickening. What a load of sheeeiiite. Lterally. Caught a bit of an MPs debate on R5Live in the car this morning and the Tory was blaming the Victorians whilst accusing the other parties of playing politics. How anyone can vote for these corrupt criminals is beyond me.
ThePrisoner
Well-known member
Not really. They have been getting massive dividends for years.
Thames Water have paid no dividends to external shareholders for 5 years.
You'd have had to have been a shareholder for a very long time to have recorded anything other than a big loss.
The numbers are staggering. The 9 water companies since privatisation.
Borrowed £50 Billion +
Dividends £72 Billion +
To revoke the Thames licence the government have to give them 25 years notice.
If you really want to know how the scam actually works. Strangely enough go check out
Fergal Sharkey’s research.
sherlock
Well-known member
This bit surely wouldn't apply to a company who has gone bust.
Doubt it. Though we still incur the debt. Would have thought that there would be some regulatory system of oversight in the the way the company was being run.
Oh there was. Ofwat.
sherlock
Well-known member
Been clear as day for years that none of the regulators works for the benefit of the public.
r00fie1
Well-known member
So what has the billions in debt funded?
Quicksilvera
Well-known member
Another way of the government to steal more of our money.
Thames Water's chief executive Sarah Bentley has stepped down with immediate effect after three years in the role. Cathryn Ross and Alastair Cochran will jointly assume the interim role of chief executive while the board finds a permanent replacement.
She did manage to double her salary in those 3 years though, kerrrrching!!!
She did manage to double her salary in those 3 years though, kerrrrching!!!
TheBoroBuzzard
Well-known member
When Thames Water was privatised back in 1989, it raised a paltry £922m for the government, people were promised a utopia of private sector efficiency in which the water industry's new private sector owners would create a first-class water system at much lower prices than the government ever could.
But this didn’t happen, selling out to investors, with one of them an Australian company called Macquarie..who where known as the ‘vampire kangeroo’ due to their asset stripping history and huge pay outs in dividends even when a business is making huge losses…what on earth did they think could go wrong
But this didn’t happen, selling out to investors, with one of them an Australian company called Macquarie..who where known as the ‘vampire kangeroo’ due to their asset stripping history and huge pay outs in dividends even when a business is making huge losses…what on earth did they think could go wrong
TheBoroBuzzard
Well-known member
…Oh and this the same Macquarie Group who where allowed to invest in the below earlier this year.
’National Grid is set to complete the sale of a 60 per cent stake in its gas transmission and metering business by the end of January, with all conditions now met.
The deal's closure means that a key part of Britain's energy grid, which maintains more than 4,000 miles of gas pipes, will soon be majority owned by global investors - including an Australian investment bank known as the 'Vampire Kangaroo'.
Sydney-based Macquarie and British Columbia Investment Management agreed to buy the stake in March this year for £5.8billion, valuing the entire division at £9.6billion’
The mind boggles
’National Grid is set to complete the sale of a 60 per cent stake in its gas transmission and metering business by the end of January, with all conditions now met.
The deal's closure means that a key part of Britain's energy grid, which maintains more than 4,000 miles of gas pipes, will soon be majority owned by global investors - including an Australian investment bank known as the 'Vampire Kangaroo'.
Sydney-based Macquarie and British Columbia Investment Management agreed to buy the stake in March this year for £5.8billion, valuing the entire division at £9.6billion’
The mind boggles
1 The Non-Executive Directors provide an independent view on the running of our business, governance and boardroom best practice. They oversee, constructively challenge and hold to account, management in their implementation of strategy within the Group's system of governance and the risk appetite set by the Board.
2 Thames Water had four of them.
2 Thames Water had four of them.
BlindBoyGrunt
Well-known member
To think there are still people who do not understand why Jeremy Corbyn could not be allowed to become PM.
RedAsABeetroot
Well-known member
How does a monopoly supplying an essential product go bust without totally irresponsible management?
If it goes bust surely the people who are going to take the hit are the current owners namely the shareholders.
The business will be sold to someone who can buy it at the price they are prepared to pay. The shareholders should get a % of the face value of the shares.
The danger I see if some sovereign wealth fund takes it over totally rather than the government.
The business will be sold to someone who can buy it at the price they are prepared to pay. The shareholders should get a % of the face value of the shares.
The danger I see if some sovereign wealth fund takes it over totally rather than the government.
Who knows
They've borrowed billions to make sure billions are paid out to investors
Now interest rates have risen they're unable to service the debt
The company was debt free and nobody can figure out how they've racked up so many billions in debt because nearly every expert seems to agree it's not been for investment
And I bet there's a few other business in a similar position as well as mortgage holders
Share buy back perhaps. Inflates the share price and so it becomes a financial merry go round.
Payments to "Internal shareholders", which is Thames Water's owner. So Thames Water has borrowed money to pay its owner, but not to build infrastructure or improve service or pay dividends to external shareholders.
So the people who bought shares in water companies years ago, or pension funds which invested as a 'safe investment' lose out if the company is bought out. And of course Thames Water customers are losing out too because they've been told their inflated bills are caused by the need to build infrastructure when in reality they are just paying for their water, nothing more.
I'm only referring to Thames Water, I'd imagine many of the other English water companies are facing similar problems now.
Scottish Water - still owned by the state. Glad I live here.