Macquarie Injects £550 Million into UK’s Indebted Southern Water
- Funding needed to help water utility battle soaring inflation
- Money comes after Southern’s credit rating was downgraded
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Macquarie Asset Management gave a £550m ($700m) equity injection to Southern Water Ltd taking the bank’s funding total to £1.65 billion since September 2021.
Highly-leveraged Southern Water was seeking more equity to try to reduce its gearing ratio and steady its balance sheet. The extra funding is expected to help the utility cope with rising inflation costs, without becoming more indebted. Last month, it was downgraded by Fitch because of its reduced ability to pay off debts.