Thames Water put into special measures by regulator to avoid another hefty fine
THAMES WATER has been put into special measures by the water regulator to avoid another hefty fine for breaching licence conditions.
The UK’s biggest water company will now have an “independent monitor” appointed by watchdog Ofwat to check its financial records, turnaround progress and steps to raise cash.
The unprecedented move comes after the firm breached its legal licence condition when its debt was downgraded to “junk” by two credit rating agencies.
Ofwat could have fined Thames another 10 per cent of its turnover for the breach, which would have worsened its finances further.
Ofwat chief executive David Black said: “We are clear Thames Water needs to remedy its licence breach, turn around its operational performance and secure backing from investors to restore its loss of investment-grade credit rating.”
Thames, which provides services to 16million customers, was slapped with a £104million penalty on Tuesday for routinely using storm overflows to pump sewage into rivers.
Over two-thirds of its waste treatment works had serious operational problems and Ofwat’s probe revealed it had not been monitoring 312 of its overflows for years.
Water firms can use overflows to release diluted sewage in exceptional circumstances such as heavy rain, to avoid flooding homes.
But chronic underinvestment over a decade has meant Thames discharged sewage 16,990 times last year, a 112 per cent rise on 2022.
Yesterday, Thames’ own map showed three overflows were discharging sewage, despite no rain.
Thames has said it needs to raise funds from investors to fix its issues and only has 11 months of cash left.
Ofwat turned down its request to hike bills by 44 per cent to help cover investment, limiting it to 22 per cent.
It is still investigating Thames’ payment of a £150million dividend in March, which was made despite the regulator saying such payments should not be paid if a firm is not financially resilient.
Puma has a Riri hard time
A TRAINER collaboration with pop star Rihanna has not been enough for Puma to style out supply chain and foreign currency challenges.
The sportswear brand said its multi-year Fenty x Puma deal with the Barbadian singer had continued to “drive brand heat” — and it recently launched a sell-out shoe collection with her partner, US rapper A$AP Rocky.
Puma also has a partnership with Brazilian footballer Neymar Jr and said its new Future 7 boot had helped the firm gain market share in the sport.
But yesterday, the company said that while sales had risen by 2.1 per cent to £1.8billion, the past three months saw its profits slump by a quarter to £35million.
Shares in the German brand fell by 11.4 per cent yesterday to their lowest level since in 2018, after the company warned that earnings would be at the lower end of expectations.
Boss Arne Freundt said Puma remained on track, despite “an environment of increased currency headwinds, stressed supply chains and macroeconomic and geopolitical challenges that are weighing on consumer sentiment around the world”.
Shoe’s blues over riot damage
THE boss of Shoe Zone, which had its Hull store looted and torched in this week’s riots, has told The Sun how “frustrating and senseless” it is for high streets to be under attack.
Rioters smashed windows, stole goods and used piles of shoes to start a blaze that melted the metal shopfront sign.
Anthony Smith, the firm’s CEO, said: “What is the point of it? We are serving the community, we are investing here. Hull and the high street doesn’t need any more pain.”
He added: “They are nicking low-value shoes and setting them alight — what’s that all about? It’s nothing to do with protest — just mindless violence and a bit of excitement.
“The police told our staff to leave and lock up two hours before so they knew it was coming. You would think that they could have stopped it.”
The British Retail Consortium held riot talks with the Home Office, Department for Business and Trade and police yesterday.
Footfall at stores in Bristol, Leeds and Manchester is down 17 per cent and by 13 per cent in Liverpool on days when trouble took place, stats show.
Disney’s profit is inside job
THE success of Inside Out 2 has helped boost Disney’s profits after it became the highest-grossing animated film of all time.
The entertainment giant said that since the Pixar sequel was released, more than 1.3million people had signed up to its streaming service to watch the original movie, first released in 2015.
Disney has also turned its first profit from its streaming business, which includes Disney+, Hulu and ESPN and has 118million subscribers.
It reported a £36million gain from streaming, which chief financial officer Hugh Johnston called “great progress… we were losing $1billion a quarter not that long ago”.
Disney made £18billion in revenues in the first quarter and returned to a profit of £2.4billion from a £105million loss a year ago.
But it suffered a fall in visits to its theme parks.
Property prices up
HOUSE prices jumped by 0.8 per cent in July and are set to keep rising as mortgage rates become more affordable, according to Halifax.
The average UK house price is now £291,268, 2.3 per cent higher than a year ago — the biggest increase in the annual growth rate this year.
Separate figures from Zoopla found buyers typically spend just 20 minutes viewing a property before deciding whether to make an offer.