BONDING

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* There has been a flurry of activity on the bond markets.

The company under the greatest pressure to move fast is Kemble Water – the Macquarie-led consortium which owns Thames. It needs to sew up a £4.5 billion securitisation by mid-September, or face the need to pay off some of Thames’ existing bondholders (see story p11).

* Elsewhere in the UK, Southern Water issued another 50-year wrapped bond, this time for £300 million, despite being put on the block by owner RBS. The company was already leveraged to the tune of 95%. It begs the question of what equity will be left for the buyer. Goldman Sachs is reported to be lining up a bid in an auction which is sure to stretch the slide rules of the major infrastructure funds over the summer.

* On the international front, the city of Zagreb’s municipal services company pulled off a €300 million issue without an explicit guarantee from the city. It also had to do without the strategic backing of the European
Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The bank was originally slated to hold 30% of the paper, but its internal approval mechanisms could not meet the timetable for the issue (see story p16).