Anyone in favour of Nationalisation of utilities?

[Diver Fred]

It appears there will be a water company on the market shortly

"SES Water up for sale in UK as Japanese owners pay £7.8mn dividend​

Company on the market as groups face pressure over debt levels and pollution failures"

FT.com



"SES Water’s Japanese owners are paying a £7.8mn dividend and putting the business up for sale as the UK’s privately owned water companies come under pressure to invest in ageing infrastructure.

The company, which provides water for about 745,000 people in south-east London, West Sussex and Kent, has been put on the market by its owners Sumitomo and Osaka Gas, according to two sources close to the sales process. Macquarie Capital is acting as adviser to the companies.

SES’s Japanese owners are understood not to have wanted to put equity into the business and instead decided to sell, one person close to the discussions said. The company is one of six water-only providers in England and is responsible for supplying Gatwick airport, which was forced to close restaurants and toilets for one day last July after pipes burst."

(Red Text) That's all we need - MC's working plan is to get the company that is up for sale to take out a 'loan', given to the new 'owners' to finance the sale; then that company has to repay the loan and supply MC with a substantial dividend. If the loan is defaulted on then MC's run away but don't take the loss. So subtle...

 

[Notch7]

Yes. Lets go back to the power cuts and shortages of the 70's, when the utilities were publicly owned.
Nowt wrong with candles lad.

Power cuts back then had nothing to do with public ownership.

 

[ellal]

Funnily enough...

"French energy giant EDF's UK arm returned to profit in 2022, boosted by it being able to sell the electricity it generated for a higher price. "

"EDF, which supplies gas and electricity to about five million UK households, is 84%-owned by the French state, but will soon be fully nationalised."

"It operates five nuclear power stations in the UK as well as having a large number of wind farms.
Unlike generators who rely on gas to produce power, it benefited from higher electricity prices on wholesale markets in 2022 which brought it a big increase in revenues without an equivalent rise in costs."

That's probably why the French have been able to keep household energy price rises so low whilst at the same time keeping the assets publicly owned...

Now I wonder why the UK wasn't able/allowed to think the same way?

 

[ellal]

Fibre to the Home/Premises - BT intended to start a roll-out from around 1993, I'd been involved with the speech element of project; OfCom stopped the project dead in it's track - they said it was AntiCompatative. Still grieves me today.

Thatcher actually stopped the project earlier as it was going to cost about £15bn and would have screwed up her privatisation plans...

Ofcom was merely a poodle that rubber stamped that decision!

The UK would have been a world leader, but as always it was/is profit before people in this country!