Election Year or Fear!

[Geoff Parkstone]

... and it's Thames who have not invested in repairs and maintenance, built up huge debts yet still think it's OK to pay out billions in shareholder dividends and get emergency loans from the taxpayer. And there was I thinking dividends were shareholder's cut of the profits... it seems that you can lose billions, have billions of pounds worth of R&M backlogs but still look after your shareholders. The R&M has to be done. Thames is broke. The taxpayer and Thames' customers will have to pay for it. Might as well nationalise it and avoid having to pay for dividends on the back of losses. The taxpayer has covered the losses. Water is a necessity. Get the R&M done, screw the shareholders who, IMO, have been undeservedly getting dividend for years, nationalise Thames and, if it ever turns a profit, it goes into the Treasury rather than shareholder bank accounts.

I'm not anti shareholder. I do, however, believe that dividends on the back of perennial losses is abhorrent. I also believe that utilities such as gas, electric, water and maybe more things, should be provided to the public at cost. There shouldn't be a profit made out of necessities.

Under company law a company can only pay dividends out of retained profits, not out of for example capital.

You might care to fact check your assertion that billions have been paid out in dividends when billions have been made in losses.

If this had been done then the directors and auditors should be held personally responsible

[ramAnag]

Under company law a company can only pay dividends out of retained profits, not out of for example capital.

You might care to fact check your assertion that billions have been paid out in dividends when billions have been made in losses.

If this had been done then the directors and auditors should be held personally responsible

You have a more professional insight into such matters than most,Rog, but the facts seem to be that Thames Water has accrued 22 billion GDP of debt since it was privatised in 1989 and that it only recently ceased paying dividends to shareholders.
I believe they’ve paid out 7 billion GDP in dividends since privatisation, which would seem to back up MA’s assertion. I also believe they’re unlikely to pay further dividends before 2030, but that seems to be a case of ‘shutting the proverbial stable door after the horse has bolted’.

Perfectly happy to be corrected if I’ve misunderstood.