Europe

Thames Water Faces Nationalisation Just Two Days Before Reeves Statement

Rachel Reeves risks being forced to nationalise Thames Water just two days before her Spring Statement in a move that would force the Chancellor to tear up her spending plans, The Telegraph reported. The Treasury is drawing up fresh contingency proposals for Britain’s biggest water supplier ahead of a court showdown that could plunge the business into special administration. The threat of special administration is still looming over Thames Water, which has 16m customers, despite the High Court approving an emergency loan from its lenders last month.
United Kingdom
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ECB Cuts Again and Signals Easing Phase Is Nearing Its End

The European Central Bank lowered interest rates for the sixth time since June and indicated that its cutting phase may be drawing to a close as inflation cools and the economy digests seismic shifts in geopolitics, Bloomberg News reported. The deposit rate was reduced by a quarter point to 2.5% as officials described their monetary-policy stance as becoming “meaningfully less restrictive.” Revealing that inflation will take slightly longer to reach 2%, the ECB is switching “to a more evolutionary approach,” President Christine Lagarde said Thursday.
Europe
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Eurozone’s Retail Sector Continued to Struggle at Start of 2025

Retail trade ticked lower in the eurozone at the start of this year, with January’s decline marking four months of no growth in sales for the sector, the Wall Street Journal reported. Sales volumes were down 0.3% on month in January, European Union statistics agency Eurostat said Thursday, weaker than economists’ forecast of a slight rise. While December’s figure was revised upward to record flat growth, from a 0.2% decline previously reported, volumes only last grew in September.
Europe
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Steel Group Liberty Puts Romanian Subsidiary Under Pre-Insolvency Procedures Amid U.S. Tariffs

Integrated steel mill Liberty Galati in Romania (formerly Sidex), with a liquid steel capacity of 3 million tonnes, part of steel group Liberty, announced on March 4 that it entered the pre-insolvency procedure "to stabilise the business, optimizing the allocation of resources and opening up new investment opportunities," Romania-Insider.com. The measure is taken in the context of geopolitical changes, new tariffs imposed by the US on steel imports (25% as of March 12), and the lack of real measures to protect the steel industry at the European Union level, the company said.
Romania
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UK’s Southern Water in Talks to Avoid Thames-Like Debt

Britain’s Southern Water Ltd. is trying to fix its finances in an effort to preserve its investment grade status, safeguard its balance sheet — and avoid the same debt woes as Thames Water, Bloomberg News reported. The utility has entered into talks with its creditors to figure out how to reshape its capital structure, according to people familiar with the matter. The parties are discussing how to accommodate a £900 million ($1.2 billion) equity injection — led by majority shareholder Macquarie Asset Management — and what other tweaks may be necessary to stabilize the company’s finances.
United Kingdom
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Southern Ireland's Insolvency Figures May Hint at North’s Future

Since the beginning of the recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, there have existed two different insolvency regimes on the island of Ireland, the Irish News reported. In 2024, there were 852 total insolvencies in the Republic, a 16% increase on 2023. Some 305 companies in Northern Ireland declared insolvency in 2024, an almost 40% increase. Of course, a portion of the explanation will always rest on the sizes of the respective jurisdictions, but Northern Ireland’s much stricter post-Covid insolvency procedures can also help us understand this discrepancy.
Ireland
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