London | Britain’s water regulator has delivered a stinging rebuke to Macquarie-owned Southern Water, slapping the English utility with a potential £54 million ($103 million) fine for having an “inadequate” five-year business plan.

Ofwat said Southern Water, which Macquarie first bought into back in 2021, was too heavily geared. It also limited Southern to a 3.7 per cent return on capital for its investors and almost halved Southern’s proposed increase in what it can bill customers.