Die Schulden von Southern Water wurden von Moody’s auf Junk-Status herabgestuft

Greed is good

Shareholder value

Privatise the profit

Socialise the loss

Bastard’s!

Southern Water is controlled by Macquarie, the business entity that was the leading part of the consortium (it had a nearly 48% stake) that purchased Thames Water in 2007 for £5.1 billion. The consortium had borrowed £2.8 billion for the purchase; the business was refinanced and £2 billion paid back to the investors, the debt moving to Thames Water’s balance sheet. Shareholders were also paid a £535 million dividend in 2007, despite Thames Water’s profits for the year being just £190m. In the ten years the Macquarie consortium had control of Thames Water, more than £2.5 billion was paid out as shareholder dividends. Over the same period Thames Water’s debts increased from £3.2 billion to £10.7 billion. The return to Macquarie on their ten year investment on the other hand was reported to be between 15.5% and 19% annually.
([Source](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13563467.2022.2084521): ‘Private equity and the regulation of financialised unfrastructure: the case of Macquarie in Britain’s water and energy networks’, *New Political Economy* 28:2 (2023), pp. 155–172.)

We all know what a state Thames Water was left in. Ofwat reportedly ‘welcomed’ Macquarie’s purchase of Southern in 2021. It looks as if history is repeating itself and will continue to do so if left unchecked. It’s impossible to look at this without feeling revulsion at corporate greed, and anger at the political and regulatory failure that continues to surround the privatisation of water.