United Utilities: Banned bonus for FTSE 100 CEO revealed June 23, 2025 The amount top bosses at FTSE 100 giant United Utilities are set to lose in bonuses – after the water giant was named as one of six to be banned from handing out the payouts – has been revealed. Earlier this month, new measures in the Water (Special Measures) Act come into force which prohibited utility [...]
MP to take Thames Water to Supreme Court over restructuring plan June 17, 2025 A Liberal Democrat MP will take a case against Thames Water’s restructuring to the Supreme Court. Charlie Maynard, MP for Witney, was among a group which included the utility’s secondary creditors, who opposed a £3bn emergency loan agreement earlier this year. Thames Water has been battling to stave off special administration over the last year [...]
Thames Water lenders offer £17bn plan, push Ofwat for ‘regulatory reset’ June 10, 2025 A group of Thames Water’s major creditors have put forward a sweeping, multibillion-pound rescue deal, while calling for forgiveness of historic fines from Ofwat. Major investment firms, including Aberdeen and Elliott Management, are among the investors, who have said they have “the funding and experience required to deliver a transformation of the company’s performance which is intended [...]
Is the government right to ban water company bonuses? June 6, 2025 It is safe to say the water industry is not in the government’s good books. Decades of underinvestment and mounting debt have led to a sewage spill crisis, sparking immense public outrage. Thames Water, the UK’s largest water supplier, has come to symbolise the sector’s woes as it teeters on the brink of administration. US [...]
Thames Water: Water boss bonus ban comes into force June 5, 2025 Six water companies including crisis-hit Thames Water will be banned from paying bonuses to senior bosses. New measures in the Water (Special Measures) Act come into force on Friday, prohibiting utility firms that oversee “poor environmental and customer outcomes” from offering bonuses to senior bosses. The companies impacted are Thames Water, Yorkshire Water, Anglian Water, [...]
Thames Water mess could soon swamp ministers – and taxpayers June 4, 2025 Water takes the path of least resistance, and so – on this occasion as least – does private equity. Apparently deterred by the increasingly hostile political and regulatory environment KKR, the US giant which secured ‘preferred bidder status’ for a takeover of Thames Water, pulled the plug on its £4bn investment over the weekend. They [...]
Water industry requires fundamental reset, review finds June 3, 2025 There is no single change radical enough to deliver the “fundamental reset” needed by the UK’s water industry, a much-anticipated review into the sector has found. The Cunliffe review has been led by former Bank of England deputy governor Sir John Cunliffe and is the largest since the sector was privatised in the late 1980s. [...]
Thames Water: What next after KKR walks? June 3, 2025 Thames Water was dealt a crushing blow this morning after its preferred bidder, the US private equity giant KKR, abruptly withdrew from its pursuit of the embattled utility. The decision leaves the UK’s largest water supplier without a buyer and puts it back on the brink of administration. It follows just a week after it [...]
Environment secretary says Thames Water has ‘a number’ of options June 3, 2025 Environment secretary Steve Reed told LBC’s Nick Ferrari that there are “a number” of potential investors for Thames Water, just minutes after news broke that US private equity firm KKR had dropped out of a last ditch effort to save the embattled water giant. Reed had already been booked to appear for a ‘Call the [...]
Blow to Thames Water as KKR pulls out of equity raise June 3, 2025 Thames Water’s battle to escape nationalisation has suffered a hammer blow after KKR withdrew its bid to acquire an equity stake in the business. The US private equity giant had been selected as a preferred partner for the debt-laden utility business as part of its efforts to raise funds, with KKR having “prepared detailed plans, [...]