THAMES Water wins another decision in its favour, giving it time to work on restructuring for long-term stability.
A hearing last week has seen judges dismiss appeals from environmental campaigners and creditors to the water provider which argued that the cost of further loans to the company were not in the public interest.
Their appeal centred on the argument that temporary nationalisation would be a cheaper way of tackling the company’s £19bn of debts than further loans.
This is because the loan would include an interest rate of nearly 10%.
The court of appeals judges are set to publish their decision and reasoning in full at a later date.
While the decision is a victory for the utilities provider, the court also declined to approve proposals which would see directors released from legal liabilities at the company.
The decision means, however, that Thames Water will now have a matter of months to restructure, rather than collapsing, which it predicted would have happened by next week if emergency loans were not approved.
Over coming months, the company will consider a number of bids from as-yet-undisclosed parties as part of its plans to stabilise.
The CEO, Chris Weston, said that while the company’s plan would not affect customer bills, but would aim to invest in infrastructure.
