Thames Water Nams Us Private Equity Group Kkr as a favorite bidder | Tamigi Acqua

Thames Water has chosen the US investment company KKR to take a participation in the sector, while the Water Water company fights to avoid nationalization.

The largest water supplier of the United Kingdom, which is struggling under a debt stack of almost £ 20 billion, said he had selected KKR as a “favorite partner” as he tries to guarantee a new share loan for his operations The end of June. The private equity company based in New York should acquire a participation in Thames for a value of £ 4 billion.

Even the commercial water dealer based in the United Kingdom, with over 250,000 customers, has made an offer for £ 4 billion, according to last week Bloomberg News. CK Infrastructure Holdings, part of the CK Hutchison based in Hong Kong, and investment company based in London Capital Covales was also among the bidders.

Thames’ Chief Financial Officer has stopped on Friday. Alastair Cochran, who had also recently covered the role of managing director of the Thames Cop-Capo, is leaving a critical moment, after Thames agreed to hire more debt billions by his creditors after A court sentence at the beginning of this month.

Thames, which serves 16 million customers in London and south-east of England, said: “The company remains concentrated on putting the Thames Waterfall On a more stable financial foundation, implementing its trend reversal plan and providing a solution guided by the market which is in the best interest of customers, taxpayers of the United Kingdom and the wider economy. “

He expects to agree on an agreement with Kkr, the private equity group that inspired The history of barbaric business greed at the gate – by the end of June and completes it in the second half of the year. Kkr is already involved in the UK’s water sector, as a minority shareholder in the waters of Northumbria.

It means that senior bondholders will make a heavy haircut on their loans, as expected. KKR’s proposal will lead to a “material impairment” of the class A debt of society and the discussions will continue in relation to other aspects of the proposal, added Thames.

Most of the Six bidders They were looking for reassurance that they would be able to avoid or manage future fines and punishments for poor performance. The guardian revealed This month that Thames had asked the sector regulator, ofwat, to be spared billions of kilos of costs and fines in the next five years.

Castle Water, based in Blairgowrie in Scotland, has over 250,000 commercial customers and is co -owner of the treasurer of the conservative party, Graham Edwards.

Two weeks ago, Thames won approval From the Court of Appeal for a rescue of emergency debt from £ 3 billion from its existing creditors to avoid an immediate collapse in a special administration regime, a form of temporary nationalization.

The future of the company was subjected to intense control and there are concerns about the state of its assets, which were The topic of a recent BBC documentary.

The Thames was at the center of the growing public anger for the state of privatized water industry, since consumers face bills in a repulsive way while companies have been criticized for pumping raw waste water in rivers and waterways.