PA Media] Thames Water, the UK's biggest water company, is in financial crisis and has secured a rescue loan to avoid coming ...

This, not 1989, was when the trouble started. Under Macquarie control, which lasted until 2017, Thames paid dividends to its investors worth £2.7 billion and tripled its debt to £11 billion.

Privatized by the Thatcher government in 1989, Thames last summer began the process of raising additional capital, culminating in an announcement last week that it had received buyout proposals ...

Many UK water companies have large debts, but Thames Water's problems are the worst. Water companies were privatised in 1989, with the idea that private investment would improve the system.