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Thames Water is burning cash at a faster rate than it earlier expected, piling pressure on the troubled utility to extend the term of £530mn of debt due to expire next month as the company seeks to avoid a renationalisation.

The UK’s largest water supplier has spent more money than it budgeted for in liquidity forecasts made in July, according to two people familiar with its finances. Those forecasts projected that it had enough cash to last until May 2025.

Thames has to extend a £530mn credit facility from banks that falls due on October 7, if it is to stay within an updated forecast made last week of having enough cash to last into the new year.

This loan was previously rolled over in April, but Thames has not yet agreed a new extension with its lending banks, according to people familiar with the matter. The utility has another £530mn loan that is due to expire in December, having previously been extended in June.

Thames Water is locked in negotiations with lenders over this and is “confident” that they will extend the facility in October, according to one person familiar with the utility’s thinking. Another person close to the discussions said that not extending the loan “blows the whole thing up”, so they expect the banks to ultimately acquiesce.

Thames Water, which supplies water and sewerage services to roughly a quarter of the population in England, is struggling under the weight of its nearly £19bn of debt — including borrowing at its parent company — and is seeking to avoid the government’s special administration regime, a form of nationalisation.

It is trying to raise potentially billions of pounds of equity to bolster its finances but the process, which is being run by investment bank Rothschild & Co, has been met with widespread investor scepticism.

Any equity will also be conditional on agreements over bill increases with watchdog Ofwat as well as a deal on regulatory fines; investors are concerned that these could wipe out any cash injection.

Thames Water announced on Friday that it had begun negotiations with its lenders to release £380mn of cash, which it has had to hold in reserve under the terms of its debt agreements. If it cannot access this reserve cash, and a further £420mn of credit lines, it will run out of cash shortly after Christmas, according to the statement.

In this scenario, the regional monopoly said it would have to “enter standstill under our financing”, giving it access to the £380mn of cash reserves and a further £550mn of “reserve liquidity facilities” that would take it through to May next year.

Accessing these facilities by entering into a so-called “standstill” would trigger restrictive covenants across its debt structure and is classed as a form of default in its bond documentation.

While the company can remain operational during that process, it would face new restrictions such as a “cessation of capital expenditure other than for essential maintenance”, according to its latest accounts.  

While lasting until May 2025 is in line with a forecast Thames Water gave in its annual report published in July, the pressures on its cash position have pushed it to change how it calculates this so-called “liquidity runway” to May.

Thames Water earlier excluded the £550mn of reserve facilities from these forecasts, but in its Friday announcement said they were now included in this analysis.

“We’ve always been very clear that Thames Water’s liquidity runway comprises both cash and undrawn facilities, and our statement on Friday was consistent with this position,” Thames Water said. “We remain focused on extending this liquidity runway further through discussions with our creditors.”

Thames Water is also in negotiations with a group of 90 creditors holding £9bn of debt at the utility’s operating company to provide a new loan that could be in the region of £1bn to further ease pressure on its finances before year-end, according to people familiar with the negotiations.

Any financing from this group — which includes US hedge funds such as Elliott Management and UK asset managers such as Abrdn — would rank ahead of the utility’s existing senior debt, they added.

WASHINGTON — Retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, he told a congressional committee Tuesday.

Favre made the disclosure as part of his testimony about a welfare misspending scandal in Mississippi. Favre, who does not face criminal charges, has repaid just over $1 million in speaking fees funded by a welfare program in the state and was also an investor in a biotech company with ties to the case. The biotech firm has said it was developing concussion treatments.

The former football star told the committee that he lost his investment in the company “that I believed was developing a breakthrough concussion drug I thought would help others.”

“As I’m sure you’ll understand, while it’s too late for me — I’ve recently been diagnosed with Parkinson’s — this is also a cause dear to my heart,” Favre said.

What causes Parkinson’s disease is unknown, and it is unclear if Favre’s disease is connected to his football career or head injuries. He said in 2022 that he estimates he experienced “thousands” of concussions in his two decades in the NFL.

Favre appeared at the Republican-led House Ways and Means Committee hearing to advocate reform of the federal welfare system to better prevent fraud.

“The challenges my family and I have faced over the last three years—because certain government officials in Mississippi failed to protect federal TANF funds from fraud and abuse, and are unjustifiably trying to blame me, those challenges have hurt my good name and are worse than anything I faced in football,” Favre said.

House Republicans have said a Mississippi welfare misspending scandal involving Favre and others points to the need for an overhaul in the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program.

Favre has said he didn’t know the payments he received came from welfare funds and has noted his charity had provided millions of dollars to poor kids in his home state of Mississippi and in Wisconsin, where he played most of his career with the Green Bay Packers.

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US President Joe Biden has urged world leaders to preserve democracy in his valedictory address to the United Nations, describing his decision not to seek re-election as an example of putting the greater good ahead of personal interest.

“My fellow leaders, let us never forget, some things are more important than staying in power,” he told delegates to the UN General Assembly to widespread applause.

Biden’s fourth and final address to the global body came as many of Washington’s closest allies nervously anticipate former president Donald Trump’s possible return to power next year.

“Never forget we are here to serve the people, not the other way around,” he said, adding that the future “will be won by those who unleash the full potential of their people to . . . live and love openly without fear. That’s the soul of democracy”.

Despite his plea, Biden failed to offer any new ideas on how to end the conflicts that are threatening stability in Europe and the Middle East, instead repeating his administration’s appeals for peace.

On a ceasefire agreement to end the conflict in Gaza, he said: “Now is the time for the parties to finalise its terms, bring the hostages home and secure security for Israel and Gaza free of Hamas, ease the suffering in Gaza and end this war.”

He also said his administration was committed to averting a wider war in the Middle East even after an Israeli air assault on Lebanon on Monday killed nearly 500 people, in a dramatic escalation of its conflict with Hizbollah, the Iranian-backed movement.

“Full scale war is not in anyone’s interest. Even as the situation has escalated, a diplomatic solution is still possible,” Biden said. “In fact, it remains the only path to lasting security to allow the residents from both countries to return to their homes . . . That’s what working, that’s what we’re working tirelessly to achieve.”

On the war between Russia and Ukraine, Biden warned that the world had a “choice to make” — a veiled reference to Trump, who has pledged to end the conflict immediately after taking office should he win the US presidential election in November.

Pointing out that Russian president Vladimir Putin had failed to achieve his goal of destroying Ukraine and weakening Nato, Biden said that the world “now has another choice to make”.

“Will we sustain our support, help Ukraine win this war and preserve its freedom, or walk away and let aggression be renewed and a nation be destroyed?” he said.

“We cannot grow weary, we cannot look away, and we will not let up on our support for Ukraine, not until Ukraine wins a just and durable peace,” he added.

Biden ended his address with a plea for unity and a warning against isolationism as democracies across the world come under threat.

“We are stronger than we think. We’re stronger together than alone,” he said.

Magazine publisher Hearst UK is hoping for a “full recovery” to its digital advertising revenue after it was hard hit by platform algorithm changes in 2023.

The publisher made an operating loss of £3.6m in 2023 following an operating profit of £5.1m in 2022. Excluding exceptional items, it reported an operating profit of £6.1m in 2022 and a loss of £1m in 2023.

Hearst UK is the trading name of The National Magazine Company Ltd which said in its 2023 accounts that it “projects an operating profit and positive cash flow in the coming year”.

And it reported profit before tax of £685,000, compared to pre-tax profit of £6.1m in 2022.

Hearst UK’s biggest brands include Elle, Good Housekeeping, Country Living, Women’s Health, Runner’s World, Inside Soap and Digital Spy.