Thames Water has received a number of bids for the struggling business which has warned it could run out of cash by next year.
Castlewater, the Scottish utility firm jointly owned by Conservative party treasurer Graham Edwards, is understood to have made an offer for Thames ahead of a deadline for potential investors this week.
Infrastructure investor Covalis, in collaboration with French firm Suez, He is also believed to have thrown his hat into the ring.
Thames is the UK’s largest water company and one in four people in the UK rely on the firm for their supplies.
Admittedly, the ailing business is saddled with debt. Next March will rise to around £18bn..
Consumers are facing steep hikes in their water bills. In July, Thames told the industry regulator of Watt that it wanted to increase annual bills by 23% between 2025 and 2030.
Since then, Thames has said it needs to raise bills by 53 percent.
Thames could run out of money as early as the first quarter of 2025, which is why its creditors Borrowed up to £3bn. To be issued in two tranches, the first of which £1.5bn could be released in February.
There is no shortage of potential investors in Thames.
People close to the process have told the BBC there are six interested parties, some of which have come forward publicly, such as Castlewater and Covallis.
Other potential buyers include Brookfield Asset Management, the Canadian investment giant headed by former Bank of England governor Mark Carney, and Hong Kong’s CKI, which already owns a stake in Northumbrian Water.
All these possible bids depend on two factors:
- How much pain are Thames lenders willing to take? How much of the £18bn debt will be forgiven?
- How much will Thames be allowed to charge users over the next five years?
Both of these are currently in the air. There will be some clarity on whether bidders will remain interested when Ofwat announces its final determination of bills for the next five-year period on 19 December.
One thing we do know is that Thames needs at least £4bn in new equity – money that doesn’t need to be repaid.
Both Castlewater and Kowalis intend to list the teams on the stock exchange.
Castlewater, Cowales and Thameswater all declined to comment.
When Thames Water was privatized in 1989, it had no debt. However, over the years he took on a lot of debt.
A large part of this was added when Macquarie, an Australian infrastructure bank, owned Thames Water, worth more than £10bn when the company was sold in 2017.
Thames is the most indebted of the water companies in England and Wales, and interest payments on more than half of its debt have risen with inflation, which has been high in recent years, adding to the firm’s woes.