Thames Water Profits Soar, Prada Seals Versace Takeover and HSBC Names New Chair: The Big Business Stories of 3 December 2025

The first week of December 2025 has opened with a burst of corporate drama: a controversial profit rebound at embattled utility Thames Water, the completion of Prada’s long‑awaited takeover of Versace, and HSBC’s surprise decision to make interim chair Brendan Nelson permanent. Add Airbus cutting its delivery target and Jaguar Land Rover abruptly ousting its design boss, and it’s a packed day for business watchers.

Key points

Thames Water has swung from loss to a half‑year profit of about £414m, powered by a 31% rise in customer bills, but still warns it could slide into rapid quasi‑nationalisation under a special administration regime. ^[1]
Prada has completed its roughly $1.4bn (€1.3bn) acquisition of Versace, creating a new Italian luxury powerhouse aiming to challenge LVMH and Kering. ^[2]
HSBC has appointed Brendan Nelson as Group Chair, ending a year‑long search to replace Mark Tucker and raising questions over strategy at a bank that now earns most of its profits in Asia. ^[3]
Airbus has cut its 2025 delivery target from 820 to 790 jets after a quality issue with A320neo fuselage panels, while keeping its profit guidance unchanged. ^[4]
Jaguar Land Rover has reportedly fired long‑time design chief Gerry McGovern, who was said to have been “escorted out of the office” following a divisive Jaguar rebrand and the arrival of a new CEO. ^[5]

Thames Water’s profit rebound doesn’t end its crisis

Thames Water – the UK’s largest water utility, serving about 16 million people in south‑east England – has reported a dramatic swing back into profit for the six months to 30 September 2025.

The company posted half‑year profits of around £414m, compared with a £149m loss in the same period a year earlier. Revenues jumped about 40% to nearly £2bn after regulator Ofwat allowed it to raise household bills by roughly 31% in April, while capital investment rose around 22% to £1.26bn. ^[6]

Operationally, Thames points to a 20% reduction in pollution incidents and improvements in leakage performance, arguing that higher bills are funding its biggest infrastructure upgrade in more than a century. ^[7]

Yet the headline profit figure masks a far darker reality:

Net debt has climbed to roughly £17.6bn, up from about £15.7bn. ^[8]
The company previously reported a pre‑tax loss of around £1.6–1.65bn for the year to 31 March 2025, largely due to a huge credit impairment. ^[9]
It has already relied on a £3bn emergency funding package, approved by the courts earlier this year, which wiped out some creditors and handed more control to bondholders. ^[10]

In today’s results, Thames warns of “material uncertainty” over its status as a going concern and acknowledges that a collapse into government‑backed Special Administration Regime (SAR) – effectively temporary nationalisation – could happen in the “very near term” if a deal with lenders is not agreed. ^[11]

Bondholders, bill payers and the politics of sewage

Behind the scenes, negotiations with creditors – including hedge funds such as Elliott Investment Management and Silver Point Capital – remain fraught. Bondholders have reportedly asked ministers for up to 15 years of leniency on environmental fines as part of a broader debt restructuring that would transfer formal ownership of Thames to its lenders. ^[12]

Politically, the optics are toxic:

Customers are paying much higher bills, while
Thames still faces anger over sewage spills and river pollution, and
The company has spent tens of millions of pounds (about £57m in six months) on advisers handling its rescue. ^[13]

The company says it has expanded its social tariffs to over 500,000 households and trialled automatic enrolment for struggling customers in London, but that may do little to quell public anger if bills keep rising into the next regulatory period. ^[14]

For the UK government, Thames Water is now the stress test for its entire privatised water model. A hardline stance on fines and investor returns risks pushing the company into administration; too generous a settlement could be seen as rewarding years of under‑investment and pollution.

Prada completes Versace takeover, creating an Italian luxury powerhouse

In fashion, one of the industry’s most closely watched courtships has finally closed. On 2 December 2025, Prada Group announced the completion of its acquisition of Versace from Capri Holdings, having received all the necessary regulatory approvals. ^[15]

The deal was first unveiled in April 2025 as a €1.25bn (roughly $1.4bn) all‑cash transaction for 100% of Versace’s equity. ^[16]

From Capri’s misfit to Prada’s cornerstone

Capri Holdings bought Versace in 2018 for about $2bn, betting that the maximalist Italian label could be turned into a global growth engine alongside Michael Kors and Jimmy Choo. But Versace struggled in the post‑pandemic era of “quiet luxury”, where understated branding and muted palettes sidelined its body‑con silhouettes and baroque prints. ^[17]

Selling Versace allows Capri to pay down debt and focus on Kors and Jimmy Choo, while handing Prada the chance to build Italy’s first homegrown luxury conglomerate at scale. ^[18]

According to deal analyses, the transaction values Versace at about $1.38–1.4bn on an enterprise‑value basis and is Prada’s largest acquisition since its IPO. Advisors on the deal reportedly included Citi and Goldman Sachs for Prada, and Barclays plus Wachtell Lipton for Capri. ^[19]

What Prada wants from Versace

The strategy is straightforward:

Brand complementarity: Prada’s cerebral, often minimalist “ugly‑chic” aesthetic now sits alongside Versace’s unapologetically bold glamour, giving the group more range across age groups and markets. ^[20]
Scale and bargaining power: Bringing Versace into Prada’s vertically integrated Italian manufacturing network should deliver operating synergies and better leverage with suppliers and landlords. ^[21]
Leadership reset: Donatella Versace stepped down as creative chief in March after nearly three decades. Her successor, Dario Vitale, a former Miu Miu designer, now has the backing of a parent that understands both Italian heritage branding and industrial execution. ^[22]
Revenue mix: Analysts estimate Versace could account for roughly 13% of Prada Group revenue, giving the combined business a bigger presence in North America and parts of Asia where Versace stores are well established. ^[23]

For consumers, little will change overnight – the Versace name and store network remain – but over the next few seasons expect subtler tailoring, more crossover collaborations and heavier use of Prada’s manufacturing muscle.

For rivals such as LVMH and Kering, Prada’s move is a reminder that luxury M&A is no longer just a French game. With Tapestry’s earlier attempt to buy Capri blocked by US regulators, Prada has effectively sidestepped a transatlantic mega‑merger and kept a storied Italian label under Italian control. ^[24]

HSBC picks Brendan Nelson as Group Chair after year‑long search

In banking, HSBC’s board has finally ended a protracted hunt for a new chair by appointing Brendan Nelson to the role on a permanent basis.

Nelson, a 76‑year‑old former KPMG partner who once led the firm’s global financial services practice, joined HSBC’s board in 2023 and has been interim Group Chair since 1 October 2025. He will succeed Sir Mark Tucker, who stepped down to become chair of Hong Kong‑based insurer AIA. ^[25]

According to HSBC’s announcement and market coverage:

Nelson will remain chair of the Group Audit Committee until publication of the 2025 results in February 2026. ^[26]
He has previously served on the boards of BP and NatWest (formerly RBS), giving him deep experience in large, UK‑listed multinationals. ^[27]
The bank says his appointment followed a “robust” process considering both internal and external candidates. ^[28]

A “safe pair of hands” – or a missed opportunity?

The choice has surprised some investors and commentators. HSBC earns the majority of its profits in Hong Kong and mainland China, and earlier speculation had focused on candidates seen as closer to the bank’s Asian operations, including former UK chancellor George Osborne and Goldman Sachs partner Kevin Sneader. ^[29]

HSBC’s new chief executive Georges Elhedery, who stepped into the role this year, had previously hinted that Nelson did not want to serve a full six‑to‑nine‑year term, suggesting this appointment may be more of a bridge solution than a generational reboot. ^[30]

Still, for a bank with over $3.2tn in assets as of 30 September 2025, the immediate priority is stability on the board while management pushes ahead with cost cuts, technology spending (including a big bet on generative AI) and a continued pivot toward Asian wealth management. ^[31]

Investors will watch closely to see whether Nelson:

backs further asset sales outside Asia,
maintains the current dividend and buyback trajectory, and
supports any renewed attempt by activist shareholders to push for a partial break‑up of the group.

Airbus trims delivery goal after A320 fuselage issue

Aerospace giant Airbus has become the latest industrial heavyweight to suffer from supply‑chain and quality headaches.

The company has cut its 2025 commercial aircraft delivery target from 820 to 790 jets, a reduction of 30 aircraft, after discovering a “supplier quality issue” affecting fuselage panels on its best‑selling A320neo family. ^[32]

Key details emerging today:

The issue concerns the thickness of certain fuselage panels, with a significant share of affected aircraft still on assembly lines, according to reporting based on Airbus briefings and supplier checks. ^[33]
The cut represents roughly a 3.5–4% reduction in this year’s delivery plan, but Airbus is keeping its full‑year profit target of about €7bn in adjusted earnings, signalling confidence it can manage the disruption. ^[34]
The panel issue comes just days after airlines rushed to apply a software fix to around 6,000 A320‑family aircraft world‑wide, following concerns that solar radiation could in rare cases corrupt a flight‑control function. ^[35]

Analysts at Jefferies and others have trimmed their earnings‑per‑share forecasts by mid‑single‑digit percentages for 2025 and 2026 but broadly see the problems as manageable given strong order backlogs and demand for narrow‑body jets. ^[36]

For airlines already struggling with grounded A320s, engine shortages and staffing pressures, though, any further delays risk complicating schedules into 2026.

Jaguar Land Rover ousts design boss Gerry McGovern

Back in the UK, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has entered yet another period of upheaval with the sudden departure of its long‑time design chief Gerry McGovern.

Reports from specialist outlets and the Guardian’s live business blog say McGovern was told he was being dismissed with immediate effect on Monday and “escorted out of the office”, shortly after new Tata Motors‑backed CEO PB Balaji took charge in November. ^[37]

McGovern has been a central figure in JLR for more than two decades:

He helped shape modern Range Rover and Land Rover designs, including the contemporary Defender. ^[38]
More recently, he led a radical Jaguar rebrand built around an all‑electric line‑up and the controversial Type 00 concept, launched in a high‑profile campaign that notably didn’t show a car at all – featuring models in saturated colours instead. ^[39]
The campaign triggered a backlash from conservative commentators, including Nigel Farage and Donald Trump, and sharply divided Jaguar loyalists. ^[40]

Neither JLR nor McGovern has publicly explained the reasons for his exit or who will succeed him. Commentators warn the decision could backfire if the brand loses one of its few world‑renowned creative voices just as it attempts a risky all‑electric relaunch, while others argue a reset was overdue after years of delays, cyberattacks and uneven financial performance. ^[41]

Why these stories matter – and what to watch next

Taken together, today’s headlines sketch a broader picture of where business and markets stand as 2025 draws to a close:

Infrastructure vs. investors: Thames Water is the most extreme example of a wider question in regulated utilities: how to fund long‑delayed upgrades without driving households into bill shock or handing windfalls to highly leveraged investors. The outcome of its restructuring will influence how regulators treat debt‑laden infrastructure owners across energy, transport and telecoms. ^[42]
Luxury consolidation 2.0: Prada’s Versace coup shows that Europe’s luxury landscape is still consolidating – but increasingly along national champion lines. Expect other mid‑sized houses to be circled by conglomerates seeking scale in handbags, footwear and beauty. ^[43]
Bank boardrooms in flux: HSBC’s decision to stick with an insider chair underscores how complex it is for global banks to balance local political pressures, activist shareholders and Asian growth ambitions. Any shift in dividends, asset sales or China strategy will now be read through the lens of Nelson’s leadership. ^[44]
Industrial growing pains: From Airbus’s fuselage woes to JLR’s design turmoil, even world‑class manufacturers are grappling with tight supply chains, tech transitions and brand reinventions. How they manage these pressures will shape jobs and investment in their home regions for years. ^[45]