Latest news with #rescuePlan
Times
10 hours ago
- Business
- Times
Senior creditors submit £5bn plan to keep Thames Water afloat
Senior creditors of Thames Water, including some of the top names in finance, have submitted a £5 billion rescue plan for the deeply troubled privatised regional monopoly. Any such deal appears to hang on Ofwat, the industry regulator, being prepared to postpone fines and investigations into the company's past wrongdoing and to renegotiate performance targets, including penalties if targets are missed, which have been set for the next five years. Last week the American buyout giant KKR walked away from a planned £4 billion rescue of Thames Water days after Ofwat decided to go ahead with a decision to fine Thames £123 million for pollution breaches and for paying dividends that had been expressly forbidden. It is understood that KKR quit after deciding that political and regulatory issues, and the public opprobrium around its plans, were too much of an obstacle.
Bloomberg
11 hours ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Thames Creditors Plan £5 Billion in Fresh Funds, Debt Writedowns
Thames Water 's senior creditors have submitted a rescue plan to the UK's water industry regulator, envisaging £5 billion ($6.8 billion) of fresh funds and hefty losses for the struggling utility's debt holders. The proposal includes £3 billion in new equity and £2 billion of fresh debt, according to a statement by the group of creditors released on Tuesday. It would also mean 'several billion of debt writedowns' to ensure financial stability, while existing shareholders would be be completely wiped out, they said.
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Massive high street fashion chain puts dozens of stores and thousands of jobs at risk as bosses draw up company rescue plan
A huge fashion brand that is a high street staple across the UK is putting dozens of stores and thousands of jobs at risk as desperate bosses rush to draw up a rescue plan for the struggling firm. The clothing retailer, which has 230 shops and employs around 5,500 people, is taking the step after latest figures showed it suffered a £32.2 million loss in 2023. River Island has now called in advisers from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to devise a formal restructuring plan to stop the business going bust. Proposals for a rescue plan are set to be finalised within weeks, Sky reports, although sources at the company say any key decisions about its future are yet to be taken. River Island was originally named Lewis and Chelsea Girl after being founded in 1948 by Bernard Lewis, before changing its brand name four decades later. It is now headed up by CEO Ben Lewis, the nephew of its founder, who took over his second stint as the head of the family firm in February. He previously held the position for almost a decade before stepping down in 2019. In January, the firm introduced a redundancy programme at its London head office in a bid to save money in the context of increasingly pressured finances. The job cuts affected a range of employees across buying, merchandising and HR, but the total number of losses was not confirmed by the retailer. Company accounts showed the company was £33.2 million in the red for the 12 months to December 30, 2023. It also suffered a 15 percent decline in sales and a 19 percent fall in turnover. The year before, River Island had a total profit of £7.5 million. Any restructuring plan will be a court-supervised process that enables a company facing financial difficulties to compromise creditors such as landlords to avoid going bust. It is currently unknown how many stores and jobs would be at risk under the plan. In its latest accounts on Companies House, River Island Holdings Limited said: 'The market for retailing of fashion clothing is fast changing with customer preferences for more diverse, convenient and speedier shopping journeys and with increasing competition especially in the digital space. 'The key business risks for the group are the pressures of a highly competitive and changing retail environment combined with increased economic uncertainty. 'A number of geopolitical events have resulted in continuing supply chain disruption as well as energy, labour and food price increases, driving inflation and interest rates higher and resulting in weaker disposable income and lower consumer confidence.'
Bloomberg
4 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Thames Water Needs £10 Billion Under Elliott, Silver Point Plan
Funds including Silver Point Capital and Elliott Management are working on a rescue plan for British utility Thames Water that would total more than £10 billion ($13.5 billion), according to people familiar with the matter. The proposal, the main terms of which are similar to the one presented by US alternative investor KKR & Co. before it walked away from its planned investment this week, would involve a sweeping debt restructuring. There would be a multibillion pound haircut for senior creditors, the people said. That would be on top of cuts for the utility's more junior Class B bonds and loans, as well as for debt at the holding level, amounting to approximately £3 billion.
Bloomberg
28-05-2025
- Automotive
- Bloomberg
An Inside Look at Nissan's Latest Bid for Survival
Nissan's CEO Ivan Espinosa is working hard to save the struggling Japanese carmaker, which faces a $5.6 billion debt repayment wall next year. The company is seeking to raise more than $7 billion from debt and asset sales to keep operations on track, Bloomberg's exclusive reporting shows. In addition to issuing convertible securities and bonds, including high-yielding US dollar and euro notes, Nissan also plans to take out a £1 billion syndicated loan, guaranteed by UK Export Finance. And it's seeking to sell part of the stakes it owns in Renault and battery maker AESC, as well as plants in South Africa and Mexico. Sale-and-lease-back plans for its Yokohama headquarters, plus properties it owns in the US, are also on the cards. The automaker's shares in Tokyo jumped on the news. Espinosa has said his rescue plan for the ailing automaker can work even without the help of an outside partner. Let's see if he's right. The funding proposal doesn't appear to have been approved by Nissan's board yet, leaving it unclear whether it will happen. Nissan's options are narrowing after the collapse earlier this year of talks to join forces with Japanese peer Honda.
