The Hong Kong-based investor CK Infrastructure Holdings (CKI) is demanding to be readmitted to the auction of ailing Thames Water, days after its preferred bidder walked away and pushed it closer to the abyss of nationalisation.
Sky News can exclusively reveal CKI wrote to Sir Adrian Montague, the chairman of Thames Water, on Monday, seeking access to due diligence materials and insisting it could be ready to table a formal bid to take control of the company within six weeks.
In the letter, which was signed by Andy Hunter, CKI’s deputy managing director, the owner of Northumbrian Water said it was keen to rejoin the Thames Water board’s equity-raise process, roughly three months after submitting a multibillion pound proposal to take control.
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Britain’s biggest water utility has been plunged back into crisis by a decision last week by KKR, the private equity firm, to abandon its status as preferred bidder.
Sky News revealed that the decision was made after talks between KKR and Downing Street officials amid concerns about the political risk of bailing out a company which supplies essential services to more than 15 million people.
Since then, Thames Water’s biggest group of creditors – accounting for approximately £13bn of its vast debt-pile – has submitted what it described as a £17bn proposal to recapitalise the company.
This, the bondholders said, would comprise £3bn of new equity and more than £2bn of debt funding.
Existing shareholders would be completely wiped out, while there would also be several billion pounds of debt writedowns aimed at restoring financial resilience and improving services,
