Canada's EDC ‘nursing losses’ after lending $1bn to Thames Water

(Guardian, London, 20 August 2024) Canada’s state-backed export credit agency is reportedly nursing steep losses after lending debt-ridden Thames Water as much as a billion Canadian dollars. The British utility, which has said it could run out of cash by next June, received five loans from Export Development Canada (EDC) between 2018 and 2022 after the Canadian pension fund Omers had invested. The total value of the loans was between C$750m and C$1.45bn (between £422m and £820m), EDC said, while declining to give an exact figure. EDC sold the loans at a deep discount in recent weeks, according to the Financial Times, which cited unnamed investors.