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Finance & Investment This week Tideway given largest ever loan for water £700 million from the European Investment Bank will fund 'supersewer' under the River Thames Tideway has secured £700 mil- lion of backing from the Euro- pean Investment Bank (EIB) for its supersewer under the River Thames, the biggest loan for water investment worldwide. The 35-year long-term loan from the EIB has been agreed with Tideway – the regulated company set up to design, build, commission and maintain the 25km tunnel in London. Tideway chief financial officer Mark Corben said: "The EIB's backing for Tideway is an important vote of confidence in us as a company as we move into the con- struction phase. This loan covers a significant propor- tion of the financing we need to raise. "The innovative, index-linked structure enables us to lock in financing costs, while also matching our funding requirements and profiling debt service, in line with the expected growth in our asset base." EIB vice president Jonathan Taylor said the loan was the "most significant" support for UK infrastructure since Crossrail. "This demonstrates the EIB's strong commitment as the largest source of financing for long- term investment in UK water infrastructure since before privatisation and builds on more than £2 billion of support for investment to improve London's water and wastewater infrastructure since 1989," he added. The EIB is the world's largest international public bank and is 16 per cent owned by the UK government. Of the project's total £4.2 billion estimated cost, Ofwat has set the regulatory baseline of £3.1 billion for Tideway, with the rest being funded by Thames Water. LV ENERGY RWE revenues down following Npower customer losses German energy giant RWE has reported falling first quarter reve- nues, which it has partly blamed on a "significant" decline in cus- tomer numbers at its UK supply business Npower in 2015. The group generated rev- enues of around €13.7 billion (£10.8 billion) in the first three months of 2016, a year-on-year decrease of 5.9 per cent. Mean- while, Ebitda rose by 4.9 per cent to €2.3 billion. RWE said the fall in revenues was "in part attributable to the supply business in the UK" where there was a "significant reduction in the number of our residential customers over the course of last year". It said some customers could only be retained by offer- ing them tariffs with "more favourable conditions" but said the situation had "stabilised somewhat" since the beginning of this year. ENERGY Eon Q1 profits rise despite fall in sales Profits from Eon's UK business were up in the first quarter of 2016, despite a significant fall in sales due to weak demand for both gas and power. Revenues decreased by almost 15 per cent on the same quarter in 2015, falling from roughly €3.1 billion (£2.4 billion) to about €2.6 billion. At the same time, Ebitda rose by around 16 per cent from €252 million to €292 million. The increased profits were attributed to "lower costs in conjunction with government-mandated energy-efficiency measures". The results of Eon's British business mirrored those of the wider group. Ebitda increased by €277 million to €3.1 billion, while sales fell by about €3.9 billion to €27.1 billion – a 12 per cent decrease. ENERGY Ratings of EDF and RWE downgraded Moody's has downgraded EDF's credit rating from A1 to A2, potentially hampering the French energy giant's efforts to pull together financing for the £18 billion Hinkley Point C nuclear project. The ratings agency said the group's action plan, announced on 22 April 2016, "will not be sufficient to fully offset the pres- sures resulting from a low power price environment combined with a significant investment programme". The agency also downgraded RWE from Baa2 to Baa3, citing low wholesale power prices and its liabilities for nuclear waste storage in Germany. Cost above £3.1bn will be met by Thames Water UTILITY WEEK | 20TH - 26TH MAY 2016 | 15 Stock watch EDF stocks took a hit last Wednesday aer its trading results for the first quarter of 2016 showed sales down by 7 per cent year on year to €21.4 billion (£16.9 billion). Shares in the group closed the previous day's trading at €11.67 before falling to €11.08 on the morning of the results. They recovered somewhat over the following days and were back up at €11.65 as Utility Week went to press. However, EDF's share price has almost halved in the past year. EDF SHARE PRICE, FIVE DAYS 12 May EDF SHARE PRICE, ONE YEAR euros euros 11.80 11.60 11.40 11.20 11.00 13 May 16 May 17 May Nov 15 25 20 15 10 5 Jan 16 Mar 16 May 16 Sep 15 Jul 15