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Macquarie has told investors that she is “very proud” for her record as the owner of Thames Water, the debt -loaded service that has fallen into deep financial difficulties since the Australian Infrastructure Investor sold its shares seven years ago.
Macquarie, now the owner of the majority of Southern Water, has attracted the anger of politicians and campaigns for his decades of Thames Water in which debt grew dramatically and dividends were regularly paid for shareholders.
“We are actually proud, very proud of our ownership of Thames Water,” said Ben Way, the leader of the Macquarie Asset Management group, a day of investor last month.
He added that over the past decade “no UK regulator” has viewed the Australian financial group like everything other than “a very positive property owner”.
The debt of Thames Water rose from 3.4bn £ 2006, when Macquarie first bought in business, at 10.8bn £ when it sold its last shares in 2017. Now being done on the eve of bankruptcy, the debt of its services debt from nearly 20 billion and has been set to lend to 3 more URA Its top subjects.
“Imagine being blamed for a home you own seven years ago when the roof came out,” Way said.
During Macquarie’s ownership, about £ 2.7 billion were divided and then £ 2.2 billion in credit.
However, Macquarie previously defended her record, showing £ 11 billion in customer bills spent on infrastructure during her ownership – a figure claiming to be “the highest level for investment of all water companies in England and Wales”.
She also said that the water flow of water water fell 22 percent during this period and it reduced “pollution incidents” by 75 percent compared to 2006.
“It was a much better business, imperfect, but much better business after our administration,” Way said. “Thames Water is a very good example of the ability to have the courage of your beliefs and see beyond drama or media noise.”
Macquarie said: “In our ownership, we have supported Thames Water while giving record levels of investment, which enabled significant improvements in water quality, reducing leaks and pollution incidents. When we sold our final shares in 2017, the company was meeting all the conditions set by the regulator, and had an investment rate estimate.”
Some of the biggest shareholders of Thames Water, including the employee’s pension system of the Ontario Pension Fund and the Abu Dhabi sovereign fund, wrote the value of their investments in the enterprise last year.
Thames Water has chosen KKR – a Northumbrian water shareholder – as his favorite bidder in a process aimed at recapitalizing the group, as the American private capital group introduced a 4BN preliminary bid to get a large share of Thames Water.
Sarah Olney, Liberal Democrat MP for Richmond Park, said last year: “Under Macquarie, Thames Water pumped millions of liters of abomination in the British rivers while collecting billions of pounds of debt paid afterwards.”
Macquarie won most of Southern Water, the other most disturbed UK water company in 2021. The company is fighting under its debt pile of £ 6 billion and is in talks with lenders about its holding company on their loans.
In addition to cutting the proposed hair, Macquarie Assset Management is injecting £ 900m of fresh capital in southern water.
