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Key events
Kalyeena Makortoff
The UK chancellor’s plans to loosen regulation and encourage more risk taking across the City will inevitably attract bad actors, the Financial Conduct Authority CEO has warned.
In an official “remit” letter addressed to the FCA last month, Rachel Reeves, said regulations meant to protect consumers in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis should not stand in the way of “sensible risk-taking” by investors and the wider financial sector, which includes banks, asset managers and insurers.
But the regulator’s chief executive Nikhil Rathi told MPs on the Treasury Committee that would result in trade-offs:
If we’re going to allow more risk into the system there’s going to be, sadly, in the financial services industry – not just here but around the world – it sometimes does attract people who don’t have the best of intentions and we’re not going to be able to stop everything.
However, FCA chair Ashley Adler told the Treasury Committee that this was not about returning to “pre-crisis light touch” regulation:
Standards must remain high but there is a very good argument for proportionality.
Unite: Thames Water ‘swimming in debt while rest of us are swimming in sewage’
Thames Water also released its latest financial results this morning, which showed its debts increase to £16bn and a 40% increase in the number of pollution incidents in the six months to 30 September.
It reported 359 category one to three pollution incidents, blaming an especially wet spring and summer.
The industry has faced public outcry over sewage spills into the UK’s seas and waterways. The Thames Water chief executive, Chris Weston, said that after “record rainfall and groundwater levels in our region, pollutions and spills are unfortunately up”.
The Unite union reiterated its call for Thames Water to be renationalised. Its general secretary Sharon Graham said:
This is the grim reality of water privatisation, a company swimming in debt while the rest of us are swimming in sewage.
The only solution the company has is for customers to pay even higher bills. While corporate vultures wait in the wings looking to asset strip.
It is time for the government to take control and stand up for the public interest. Thames Water needs to be brought back into public ownership and those who have racked up billions in debt are the ones who can pay it – not the taxpayer.
The Liberal Democrats also called for urgent government action.
The opposition party’s environment spokesperson, Tim Farron, said:
This latest shocking rise in sewage spills must be the final straw for Thames Water. The government must put this broken firm into special administration to give customers the fair deal they deserve.
Time and time again Thames Water has proved it is no longer fit for purpose and cannot be trusted with our precious waterways.
Whilst pumping out raw sewage and letting pollution incidents spiral out of control, Thames Water have lined their pockets, mismanaged infrastructure and overseen mounting debts.
It is unacceptable to continue coming up with excuses, and refusing to take responsibility for the absolute mess they’ve left .
Canary Wharf Group borrows £610m from Apollo
Canary Wharf Group, which owns most of the Docklands in southeast London, has agreed to borrow £610m from US investment giant Apollo to repay bonds that fall due over the next couple of years.
The proceeds will be used to repay CWG’s bonds due in April 2025 and April 2026.
The landlord has had a tough time since the Covid-19 pandemic, as the move to hybrid working has led several banks and law firms to downsize, and key office tenants including HSBC and Clifford Chance are moving back to the City of London, the traditional finance district. CWG is trying to lure life science and technology firms to the area.
CWG, which is owned by Canada’s Brookfield Property Partners and Qatar Investment Authority, said the financing deal showed strong support from lenders for the business district. The company has completed more than £2bn of refinancings in the past year.
Becky Worthington, chief finance officer, said:
We have achieved a significant amount of financing over the last 12 months and this latest deal with Apollo is testament to the strength of the proposition and our performance at Canary Wharf.
We continue to attract new businesses to the Wharf including health, life sciences, education, VC start-ups and scale-up customers. Several customers have recommitted including Barclays, Morgan Stanley, Citibank and JP Morgan, and earlier this year, Revolut chose Canary Wharf as its global headquarters.
More than 3,500 people are now living in Canary Wharf, which has more than 320 shops and 80 bars, cafes and restaurants.
Boohoo sets 21 January for crucial shareholder meeting
Sarah Butler
Boohoo has set a date of 21 January for a shareholder meeting called by Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group at which the former Newcastle United boss is aiming to oust the online fashion specialist’s founder and vice chairman Mahmud Kamani.
In a letter to shareholders ahead of a 20 December meeting called by Frasers at which Ashley is aiming to secure a seat on the board for himself and an ally, Boohoo’s directors warned that Ashley’s tactics were an “attempt to destabilise boohoo”.
They warned that Ashley had used similar tactics on Studio Retail Group which went into administration before he bought it for £1.
Cost of Christmas dinner rises by 6.5% – Kantar
The cost of an average Christmas dinner has risen as grocery price inflation in the UK picked up in recent weeks.
An average Christmas dinner for four costs £32.57, up 6.5% on last year, largely driven by the price of turkey and Christmas vegetable staples, according to retail analysts Kantar. Wider grocery inflation rose at an annual rate of 2.6% in the four weeks to 1 December, up from 2.3% in the previous month.
Sales at supermarkets and other grocery stores increased by 2.5% in the four weeks to 1 December as shoppers get ready for Christmas.
Sales of assorted sweet biscuits and biscuits for cheese both doubled in November compared with the month before, while 8% of shoppers bought a Christmas pudding.
Grocers’ sales are expected to continue growing, exceeding £13bn over the four weeks of December for the first time ever.
Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar, said:
Monday 23 December is likely to be the single busiest day for the supermarkets this year, although there are clear signs that shoppers are already stocking up their cupboards.
Many of us take the chance to treat ourselves at this time of year and retailers are rolling out seasonal product lines to help us celebrate in style. The proportion of spending on premium own label products reached 5% over the latest four weeks and we expect it to climb even higher in December to nearly 7%.
Sales on promotion reached 30% in November, the highest since Christmas last year. McKevitt said:
It’s retailer price cuts, often accessed through loyalty cards, that are really driving this. While multibuy promotions have stayed flat, spending on price cut offers has grown by 14%, worth £355m more than last year. Shoppers are grabbing the chance to spend that little bit more than usual on Christmas specials, and champagne, wine and spirits saw the biggest levels of buying on deal.
Tesco – Britain’s biggest retailer – achieved its highest market share since December 2017 at 28.1%, according to the report.
Thames Water has had “considerable interest” from potential equity investors, its chief executive Chris Weston told reporters, after the company put out an update on its finances.
Introduction: Thames Water could run out of cash by March without £3bn debt deal; Ashtead to move listing to US
Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets, and the world economy.
Another update from embattled Thames Water: the UK’s biggest water company warned this morning that it will run out of cash by the end of March without an emergency debt deal.
It said all its funds may be “exhausted” if it fails to secure court approval for a £3bn financial lifeline. This would mean that it could be nationalised, at least temporarily.
There are two critical court dates, on December 17 and 20 January, to secure approval for the funds, which some creditors have already agreed to lend it. This would give Thames Water enough funds to keep going until next October.
The update on its finances comes at a critical time for the utility, which is struggling under a £16bn debt pile and supplies 16 million customers across London and the Thames Valley.
Chris Weston, chief executive at Thames Water, said:
Today’s news demonstrates further progress to put Thames Water onto a more stable financial footing as we seek a long-term solution to our financial resilience.
Investors have expressed interest in taking a new stake in the business. However, they are still trying to find out what terms they might get from the beleaguered company, the UK government, and water regulator, Ofwat, if they provide billions of pounds of new equity funding.
One bidder is Covalis Capital, a UK infrastructure investor, with advice from French water contractor Suez. It has offered a £1bn upfront injection of cash, with a further £4bn to be raised from breaking up and selling off parts of Thames before listing the remaining operation.
FTSE 100-listed Ashtead Group, the £28bn equipment hire company, said it intends to move its listing to New York from London, in the latest blow to the UK stock market.
The company, which trades under the name Sunbelt Rentals, was founded in England in 1947 and has been part of the London Stock Exchange since 1986.
It embarked on a series of US acquisitions from the early 2000s, and argues that the US is its “natural” home, saying:
Ashtead is substantially a US business, reporting in US dollars, with almost all the group’s operating profit (98% in 2024) derived from North America, which is also the core growth market for the business.
The group’s executive management team and operational headquarters are based in the US and the vast majority of the group’s employees reside in North America.
The company will seek approval from shareholders for a move to a US primary listing at a general meeting, and expects the move will happen over the next 12-18 months. It also warned of a lower annual profit because of a weak commercial construction market in the US.
The planned departure follows similar moves earlier this year by Paddy Power and the Betfair owner Flutter Entertainment.
The Agenda
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9.30am GMT: Bloomberg Women, Money, Power conference
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9:45am GMT: UK Treasury committee hearing: FCA CEO Nikhil Rathi and chair Ashley Adler to discuss work of regulator
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10am GMT: Italian industrial production for October
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