The standoff between Thames Water, its shareholders, the government and the industry regulator is beginning to resemble the final scene of Reservoir Dogs. As Britain’s biggest water supplier creaks, the finger pointing over its financial woes is under way.
Its executives and shareholders believe the regulator Ofwat has been too stringent, making the company “uninvestible”. Regulators have not caved in to Thames’s claims that it needs to hike customer bills, pay out dividends and receive lower environmental fines to survive, perhaps viewing it as brinkmanship.
