When Thames water was publicly owned it had no debt. Since privatisation 30+ years ago, it has paid out huge amounts in dividends and simultaneously accrued billions in debt, all while failing to maintain the pipes or treat sewage, opting to pump raw sewage into clean rivers and risk fines instead.
For the last six months they have been threatening to 'run out of money' and if Thames Water goes bust, then the taxpayer will be the ultimate one footing the bill for the poor financial decisions of a badly run corporate venture whilst the CEO can swan off with millions in his pockets.
The UK government has started making plans for what might happen... So far a 500M loan has been made (that Thames Water declared as equity, rather than debt in their finances).
Will Thames Water keep chugging towards collapse, raising the national poverty line and breadline? (Or will it use the loan to turn around or at least limp back away from the cliff edge of collapse?)
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-66051555
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/dec/05/thames-water-turnaround-profits-auditors
@asmith They can only sell it a profit if the company stays afloat... Thames water has just kept declining steadily since privatised. Also, so far, it is loans they are looking at but the gov't also hands out 'cash injections' to the big guys.
For a bit more history around the cost to the taxpayer of bailing out a company, check out what happened when the government bailed out banks in 2008. The upfront gov't borrowing to cover this was 130+ billion. Over a decade later, whilst a lot has been recovered, the overall balance is still -33 billion due to write-offs. The taxpayer was squeezed to cushion the government's balance books during the recession but there is nothing to show for it.
Not arguing the consequences of letting it collapse wouldn't be bad, but there's a pattern of reckless companies thinking they're too big for the government not to bail them out. So much so the gov't surprised everyone when they let British Steel go under, because they had mismanaged their position so badly and just expected the gov't would step in to save them.