They will all have debt as well.
it's worth noting that:
when the water compasnies were privatised, they had no debt and healthy amounts of cash reserves
the money the water companies have borrowed since privatisation is less than the money they have handed over to the owners in dividends. this means that the company had more than enough money to pay its expenses and invest in development and renewal, but chose to give the money to the owners instead.
in some cases, they borrowed money from the overseas owners, or associated companies
the interest rates they are paying are quite high
(see line above)
interest paid is a tax-deductible expense which also reduces the headline profit figure for the water co.
furthermore, it is treated as a business expense and is charged to the customers. so borrowing money to pay dividends to the owners, justifies increasing the customer charges. One view is that this is an undesirable and pernicious rule.
a government can borrow money at much lower interest rates (until recently, at rates which were effectively negative, since they were less than inflation). so if a government nationalised a company and took over its debts, the cost of servicing those debts would be greatly reduced.
one view is that when a company is nationalised, it is fair to pay the value of the company (i.e. the value of its assets less the value of its liabilities, such as high-interest loans). If that is done, then the value of water companies is surprisingly low.
