CAR BOOT SALES

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* Finding decent assets at a reasonable price in the UK is a challenge.

Thames Water has put a ragbag of businesses up for sale. Thames Water Services includes some positions in BOTs which might interest financial investors, but also a couple of businesses – Terra Eco Systems and Engenica – which are only worth having if you have got some other water and wastewater businesses to roll them into. Then there are the two remaining international contracts: Izmit in Turkey and Puerto Rico, which after three years of intensive effort, the best investment bankers in the City of London have been unable to shift.

* No matter if the sale doesn’t go well. The main thing is that Thames Water’s catchment area is now getting the “right kind of rain”, according to environment minister Lord Rooker. He told the House of Lords that most reservoirs in England are now full thanks to the wettest winter since 1914.

* Almost as slow as the Thames Water International sale has been Siemens’ attempt to find a buyer for water and wastewater contractor VA Tech Wabag. Fortunately, the Austrian company has now reported its first profit in four years (see story p19). COO Frank Kroll tells us to expect signatures on a deal by early summer.