Chief Finance Officer of Under-Fire Thames Water has left a role of £ 1.3 moic | Tamigi Acqua

The Chief Financial Officer of Thames Water has left his work of £ 1.3 moic of £, has announced the watercolor water company.

Alastair Cochran, who had also recently held the role of interim chief of interim to Thames, will leave its role in a few days. His departure comes in a critical moment for the largest water company in the United Kingdom due to the strict control of his fragile finances.

He is currently avoiding insolvency after accepting to take an extra debt from his creditors after A court sentence at the beginning of this monthwhile trying to guarantee new shareholders’ funding for its operations The end of June.

Sources of the sector have declared that it could prove to be even more demanding for the company to manage their operations and the requirements of two diligence for potential bidders without an expert financial officer.

Thames said Stuart Thom, group finance director, would act as an interim CFO “while long -term agreements are implemented”.

The company, which serves 16 million customers in London and in the Thames valley, would go to insolvency and risked temporary nationalization if it had not obtained the new debt financing of £ 3 billion, which brought its total debts to over £ 20 billion. If it had collapsed at the end of this month, it would have remained only £ 39 million, according to the court documents.

Thames Water declared in a statement that Cochran would have resigned from the board of directors of the company and by his executive assignment by next Monday 31 March. He added that his substitute would be appointed “debt time”.

The Cochran salary package faced criticism together with those of other senior water managers, between public anger through the waterways of the state of England. His basic salary in 2024 was £ 450,000 plus a bonus of £ 446,000 and other benefits, which brought his total annual earnings to £ 1.3 million.

Sir Adrian Montague, president of Thames, said Cochran had “led the work to put the Finance of Twol (Thames Water Utility Ltd) on a more stable base, supervising the early stages of our share relaunch and financial renovation, laying the foundations for the wholesale recapitalization of the company”.

Cochran joined Thames in 2021 and held as CEO of Co-Interim between June 2023 and January 2024 before resuming the role of Chief Financial Officer. Before joining the water company, it was Chief Financial Officer of the multinational oil oil.

Last year, the Guardian Internal criticisms reported of Cochran’s time at Thames, which included accusations of current personnel and ex that had slowed the critical decisions for the operations of the water company in sectors such as the ordination of chemicals and hiring decisions. The company rejected these accusations, saying that Cochran formally signed on sums of over 10 million pounds.

Thames is examining six approaches from potential pretenders including CK Infrastructure Holdings, Castle Water and the private equity company KKR. Most of the bidders are looking for reassurance that they would be able to avoid or manage future fines and punishments for poor performance.

The Guardian also revealed at the beginning of this month that Thames had asked the water regulator, ofwat, to delay the reference of his decision on what increases the invoice that the company was allowed to impose consumers to the competition and the authority of the markets. He also requested Special treatment on fines and other regulatory supervision.

Fear agreed on the Thames request to delay the referral After emerging the concerns that pending the CMA decision could add months of uncertainty for investors who try to obtain a clear sense of the financial position of the Thames.