The group of lenders who wish to take control of the greatest public British water service and keep it outside the ownership of the government are to engage in the industry regulator that they will not unload the company before the end of the decade.
Sky News learned that Thames waterThe largest group of creditors, which takes into account most of the 20 billion pound of debt of the company, promises to keep the property until it is in a sufficiently healthy position to reach a stock market rating.
The commitment to keep the property until 2030 around 2030 is remarkable because it is the date on which the next regulatory price cycle – known as the asset management plan – should come into force.
The promise of creditors will be part of a package to submit to OFWAT by class A creditors this week.
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It is designed to dispel any suggestion that the lending group could seek to unload the water from the Thames halfway to a recovery plan aimed at putting the business on a long-term durable basis.
Creditors will also undertake not to pay dividend to shareholders for the duration of the transformation plan or its return on the stock market, according to a framework of one of the participating funds.
Earlier this month, London & Valley water consortium – which includes Elliott Management and Apollo Global Management – define proposals for a Investment plan and reversal of 20.5 billion pounds sterling.
Its emphasis on the reduction of incidents and pollution leaks – which have sparked hundreds of millions of pounds in the fines for the Thames of the Thames and destroys the reputation of the company – aims to persuade the Office and the Government that investors have a viable plan to manage one of the most important companies in the country.
Thames Water has more than 16 million customers, representing more than a quarter of the British population.
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In a statement published four weeks ago, the appointed president, Mike Mctighe, said that his investment commitment had “one of the largest infrastructure projects in the country”.
“Our main objective will be to improve performance for customers, to maintain the highest standards of drinking water, to reduce pollution and to overcome the many other challenges with the Thames water,” he said.
“This turnaround has the possibility of transforming essential services for 16 million customers, cleaning our navigable pathways and reconstructing public confidence.”
Creditors are trying to agree with a solution led by the private sector to the Thames Water Weeks crisis after Sky News revealed that the government had put the insolvency practitioners waiting to supervise its collapse in a special administration regime (SAR).
Steve Reed, the secretary of the environment before the reshuffle of the firm last month, signed the appointment of FTI Consulting to advise on emergency plans for the company to be placed in a SAR – which means that it would be temporarily nationalized.
Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, has since declared in private that the preference of the Treasury concerned a rescue of the private sector of the Thames Water.
As part of the consortium plans, the largest group of creditors in Thames Water, in general, would inject and radiate up to 18 billion pounds sterling in all its capital structure.
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The existing shareholders of Thames Water, which include the universities retirement pension program and a sovereign wealth fund of Abu Dhabi, have won the value of their investments in the company months ago.
The company faces a deadline in the coming weeks to call on competition and markets the authority against the final determination of OFWAT on its next five -year spending plan.
Ofwat said earlier this year that Thames Water can spend 20.5 billion sterling pounds during the 2026 period, the company arguing that it requires an additional sum of around 4 billion pounds sterling.
Thames Water was sentenced to a fine of 123 million pounds Sterling several months ago for wastewater leaks and the payment of dividends, with the company’s leakage offer for its performance and governance.
He was also engulfed in the legitimacy of bonuses paid to CEO Chris Weston and other bosses, even though he tries to guarantee his survival.
Under new laws, Thames Water is part of half a dozen water companies that have been excluded to pay bonuses this year because of their bad environmental files.
The group of creditors was actually left as the only tenderer from Thames Water after the KKR capital-investment company withdrew from the process, citing political and reputation risks.
CK Infrastructure Investor Holdings (CKI), based in Hong Kong (CKI), who already owns Northumbrian Water, sought to re -engage in the talks of a rescue agreement, but won little traction by doing so.
The fate of Thames Water is also being listed in the context of the change of leadership in Ofwat, with Sky News revealing in the summer that David Black, his director general, was to move following the publication of a journal commanded by the government which recommended the abolition of the regulator.
He was replaced by Chris Walters, another manager of OF-WAT, provisionally.
A spokesperson for the group of creditors refused to comment on Tuesday.