LONDON: Thames Water’s bondholders have offered to inject £5bil in new equity and debt, and write off some existing borrowing to rescue the utility.
In return they have demanded looser pollution targets and clemency on fines.
The senior creditors, who hold £13bil of the water company’s debt, stepped into the breach after US private equity firm KKR pulled out of a deal last week, leaving them in effect as the only option to avoid nationalisation.
They said their £17bil plan would fix the root causes of problems at Britain’s biggest water supplier, which is running out of cash, struggling with billions of pounds of debt and is continuing to spill sewage into rivers.
Following a recapitalisation, Thames could eventually be listed on the market, the creditor group said, but they warned that “tailored” regulatory support would be needed, with “a pragmatic approach” to historic and future compliance.
In practice, that means relief from breaches of sewage operation rules that could result in fines of £900mil over the next five years, according to Thames Water’s estimates. The government has promised to clean up Britain’s waterways, so giving Thames Water special treatment would be politically difficult.
But the alternative of temporary nationalisation could cost the state billions. The government said the firm was stable and it was carefully monitoring the situation.
“We expect the company to continue to meet its obligations to both customers and the environment,” a spokesperson said.
A creditor spokesperson said: “The plan seeks to break from the patterns of the past by delivering customers’ priorities and improved outcomes for the environment in the shortest possible time frame.”
A Thames Water spokesperson said the company’s board would consider the plan, adding that constructive discussions with its stakeholders continued.
The Class A creditors comprise pension and insurance funds, and asset managers, including Aberdeen, Apollo Global Management, Assured Guaranty, BlackRock, Corebridge Financial, Elliott Investment Management and Invesco.
Under their plan, several billion pounds of debt would be written off, including a “material write-down” to the class A debt, and they would commit £3bil of equity and £2bil of new debt. — Reuters
