THAMES WATER SHAREHOLDERS REFUSE TO INJECT £500M TO SAVE UK’S BIGGEST WATER FIRM

Troubled utility Thames Water has said its shareholders will not be injecting the first £500 million of funding that was agreed last summer as regulatory arrangements make its business plan “uninvestible”.

The £500m was the first part of a £750m commitment made by shareholders last July, which was subject to the implementation of a new business plan.

The future of Thames Water has been uncertain since fears emerged that it could collapse last June under a reported debt pile of £18bn.

Following crunch talks overnight, the company said in a statement on Thursday that it was still hoping to agree a business plan with regulator Ofwat that was “affordable for customers, deliverable and financeable for Thames Water, as well as investible for equity investors”.

It added that it was planning “to pursue all options to secure the required equity investment from new or existing shareholders”.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.

2024-03-28T08:02:22Z dg43tfdfdgfd