The Japan Times - Thames Water seeks to delay £12bn in debt repayments

Thames Water has unveiled intends to push back over around £12 billion of its debts due until March 2028 in a move giving the stricken supplier vital breathing space as it looks to secure a rescue deal. The UK’s biggest water group – which is struggling under a debt mountain of over £20 billion – stated the planned deal will extend repayments on debts that were due in March 2027 for another year.

So far creditors representing over £12 billion have signed up to the agreement, with Thames Water hoping to get further support from lenders. It comes just weeks after Thames Water confirmed its controlling lenders agreed another £2.4 billion of funding to save it from running out of cash at the year end.

The funding comes on top of an existing £3 billion emergency loan and has given it enough money to keep running until autumn 2027. Together with its latest announcement on debt repayments, this has extended the runway needed for Thames Water to strike a rescue deal.

Thames Water stated: “The signing of the transaction support agreement is an important milestone in Thames Water’s progress towards a recapitalisation. “As at the time of this announcement, creditors certifying that they represent in excess of £12 billion of secured debt have entered into the transaction support agreement.

“A process is ongoing to facilitate further creditor accessions to the transaction support agreement.” If put in place, the plans “will afford the company additional time to agree the terms of a future recapitalisation of the Thames Water group and will support the continued delivery of the company’s record AMP8 capital investment programme focused on improvements for customers and the environment”, it added.

A consortium of over 100 creditors, who collectively own about £17 billion of Thames Water’s debt mountain of over £20 billion, are in discussions with regulator Ofwat and the Government over a £10 billion deal to avoid the supplier being nationalised. The rescue plan by the consortium, called London & Valley Water, is seen as the final realistic option to avoid Thames Water being placed into a special administration regime after a previous rescue deal with US private equity giant KKR collapsed in May last year.

London & Valley Water (L&VW) have already been sent back to the drawing board after former environment secretary Emma Reynolds warned in June she did not believe their £10 billion plan for Thames Water went far enough to protect customers or the environment. They are now working on new proposals for the deal, which are expected to be put forward to Ofwat before the end of the year.

But there have been mounting calls for Thames Water to be brought back into public control, with the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Efra) Committee saying in September that London and Valley Water’s takeover plans should be ditched, claiming they do not have “the interests of the public, the company or the environment at heart”. Thames Water stated on Monday that discussions with creditors “remain ongoing and, at this stage, the company’s board, Ofwat, other regulators and relevant investment committees have made no decision to accept and take forward any proposal from L&VW to implementation”.

It stated: “The Company remains focused on securing a market-led solution which delivers long-term financial resilience and improvements for customers and the environment as soon as practicable.”

H.Nakamura--JT