Investors tell Thames Water to ‘eat humble pie’ over failed takeover and open bids
Thames Water’s bosses should eat “humble pie” over a failed takeover process last year and let other firms bid for it, according to a Hong Kong investment group angling to buy the troubled water company,CK Infrastructure (CKI), which is owned by Hong Kong’s richest man, Li Ka-shing, has already acquired Northumbrian Water and has been trying to launch a bid for Thames since February last year,Andrew Hunter, CKI’s co-managing director, told the Guardian he was “frustrated” at being shut out of the process to save the debt-laden water company, which has now been locked in talks with its own lenders since last summer,“My goodness, it’s been going on forever,” he said,Thames has been trying to stave off financial collapse for more than two years as it struggles under the weight of £17.
6bn in debt, built up over decades since privatisation.Bosses tried to sell it last year but faced embarrassment when their preferred bidder, KKR, pulled out of the deal at the last minute.Now it is negotiating with creditors over a separate £10bn rescue plan that would involve paying off the hundreds of millions of pounds-worth of fines for leaks and pollution, in exchange for the company not falling into a government-handled administration, in effect a temporary nationalisation.CKI has previously expressed interest in buying the company and wrote to the water regulator, Ofwat, in October to insist that it would bid for Thames if there was a competitive sale process.Asked if the watchdog should intervene to open up the bidding, Hunter said: “I most definitely think they should.
”“It’s hugely important that Thames Water is owned and operated by an experienced, knowledgeable company,” he added.“I would be encouraging government and Ofwat to have a process that brings about that result.“The direction of travel at the moment is bringing about a very unfortunate result, in my view,” Hunter said, casting doubt on Thames’ lenders – which include the US hedge funds Elliott Management and Silver Point Capital – as suitable long-term owners of the company.“They’re a mixed bag of traditional creditors and US distressed debt hedge funds,” he said.“They are good at what they do but they don’t run UK water companies.
”CKI has owned Northumbrian Water since 2011 and has staked much of its claim to buying Thames on its experience running that company, which serves 2.7 million customers in north-east England compared with Thames’s 16 million in and around London.It also has a long track record in UK energy as owner of UK Power Networks and Northern Gas Networks, but some MPs have raised concerns about links to China, with former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith previously saying on social media that a CKI acquisition “should be avoided at all costs”.“I take a little bit of issue with the characterisation [of CKI] as Chinese,” Hunter said.“CKI was founded in Hong Kong, under British rule, I hasten to add, and and it is now listed in Hong Kong and listed in London.
”“I can’t control the headlines,” he added.“We are well respected in this country and we’re a very large inward foreign investor.”CKI had previously been eliminated from the process despite tabling a multibillion-pound proposal, as Thames chose KKR as a preferred bidder and entered exclusive talks with the company before it eventually pulled out.Hunter said other prospective buyers should be given access to the due diligence information given to KKR at the time.“My frustration stems from the fact that we’ve never been given the information and allowed to make an offer,” he said.
He added that it “doesn’t reflect well” on Thames’ bosses that the investment company still walked away.“When you grant exclusivity to someone and they walk away, there’s a little bit of humble pie to be eaten.They’ve got to swallow their pride and say: ‘Look fellas, we need to start again.’”However, Hunter said that while CKI had spoken to Ofwat over the matter, he had not spoken personally with Emma Reynolds, the environment secretary, who would also need to approve any potential rescue deal.A spokesperson for Thames’s creditors declined to comment.
Nigel Farage to snub US conservative conference brought to UK by Liz Truss
Nigel Farage will snub a major conference of US conservatives that is being brought to the UK by Liz Truss.The short-lived former prime minister, who was accused of crashing the economy, was chosen by the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) to lead a version of the event in the UK in July.She announced this on stage in Texas on Monday while next to Matt Schlapp, commentator and chair of the event, which in the US has hosted major figures including Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, Tulsi Gabbard and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán.However, mainstream conservative figures in the UK seem wary to be associated with the Truss-led event.“We will be steering well clear of it,” a Reform UK source said, dashing any hopes that Farage would attend
Zack Polanski meets unions in attempt to get them to switch party funding to Greens
Zack Polanski has kicked off a charm offensive designed to convince trade unions to stop funding Labour and throw their weight behind the Green party, as he delivered the first in a series of speeches to union conferences.The Green leader has had “good conversations” with 10 trade unions, including some affiliated to Labour, according to party sources, and is due to address the University and College Union and the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union, not affiliated with Labour, in the coming months.The UK’s largest unions – Unite and Unison – were among those that denied negotiating with Polanski and said they remained affiliated to the Labour party. However, Unite is holding internal discussions about its future relationship with Labour before a special conference in 2027 at which it could potentially decide to disaffiliate.While Green party sources admitted that discussions Polanski had held with individual unions varied in formality, some union insiders were adamant that supporting the Greens would be a no-go area, and that such discussions were “much ado about nothing”
Kemi the attention seeker somehow always makes two plus two equal five | John Crace
Losing sleep over the war in Iran? Worried sick about the cost of living? Can’t pay your energy bills? Then relax. Because Kemi Badenoch has a displacement activity for you.It’s becoming increasingly easy to understand the Conservative leader by viewing her as a hyperactive five-year-old at the back of the class who is constantly disruptive. Who can’t get through a lesson without some kind of attention-seeking behaviour. Who has a constant desire to be indulged even though her first reactions are invariably wrong
Zack Polanski tells NEU teachers’ union that Greens would abolish ‘toxic’ Ofsted – as it happened
The Green party would abolish Ofsted because they view it as a “failed institution”, Zack Polanski, its leader, has told a teaching union conference.Polanski also said that the Greens were opposed to the academisation of schools and that they believe that Labour is not fixing the “failings” in the system by the Tories, but embedding them.In a speech to the National Education Union’s annual conference, Polanski said:double quotation markOfsted is a toxic, failed institution which is harming teachers and children – and it’s time to end it.Talking about school structures more generally, he said:double quotation markThis government’s reforms are simply tinkering around the edges.We need to end the Ofsted era entirely and move towards a genuinely collaborative model
Starmer pledges to tackle new cost of living crisis at May elections campaign launch
The 7 May elections are taking place against a backdrop of “war on two fronts”, Keir Starmer has said, as he pledged action to tackle the resurgent cost of living crisis.Launching Labour’s English local elections campaign in Wolverhampton on Monday, the prime minister said: “We’re facing a war on two fronts – the Ukraine war, now four and a bit years in … and now the Iran war, which I know is causing huge concern.“People look at their screens and they’re worried when they see explosions, infrastructure blown up, the rhetoric that goes with it, worried about whether this is going to escalate even further.”Labour is braced for heavy losses in English council votes on 7 May, in particular in the north-east and London, amid challenges from Reform UK on the right and the Green party on the left. The contests are seen as a major test for Starmer’s premiership
MPs wary of move against Starmer while war is raging
A week after Labour’s election victory in July 2024, officials at Labour HQ held their first crisis meeting about the May 2026 local elections.The party had just secured a 174-seat majority and already strategists were predicting it would be very tough, though none were assuming the prime minister’s own position would be vulnerable.Now, according to multiple officials, it will be nothing short of a “bloodbath” – though it is an open question whether the parliamentary Labour party will use it to depose Keir Starmer.One Starmer ally said it would be impossible to spin the results. “There’s no point us doing expectation management, as the results are going to be terrible anyway,” they said
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