{"id":700313,"date":"2026-07-19T18:13:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T18:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/700313\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T18:13:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T18:13:08","slug":"thames-water-creditors-seek-talks-with-burnham-as-nationalisation-looms-thames-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/700313\/","title":{"rendered":"Thames Water creditors seek talks with Burnham as nationalisation looms | Thames Water"},"content":{"rendered":"

The group of investors pursuing a rescue bid for Thames Water have said they are willing to discuss greater public control but are also preparing for a potential multi-billion pound legal battle amid reports that Andy Burnham<\/a> could temporarily nationalise the company.<\/p>\n

London & Valley Water (L&VW), a consortium of 100 institutional investors that hold \u00a317bn of the company\u2019s \u00a321bn debt, has said it is open to government involvement with Thames Water<\/a>, but indicated that this does not include public ownership in the struggling company.<\/p>\n

Mike McTighe, the corporate troubleshooter who is leading the governance overhaul and building the new board proposed for Thames, Britain\u2019s biggest water company, said the consortium wanted to work constructively with Burnham when he takes over as prime minister.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are keen to meet new ministers as soon as possible to discuss how we can work together in the best interests of customers, including by enhancing public control of the company\u2019s operations,\u201d he said. \u201cWe will work with Andy Burnham, his government and local authority leaders to rebuild confidence in Thames Water and the wider sector.\u201d<\/p>\n

The comments by McTighe, who is likely to take over as Thames Water\u2019s chair if the consortium is able to get its \u00a310bn rescue deal approved by the government, follow reports that Burnham is planning to transfer the company into a special administration regime (SAR), a form of temporary public ownership, after he takes over as prime minister.<\/p>\n

Burnham said last month that there should be \u201cgreater public control\u201d<\/a> of Thames Water and told the Guardian this could mean nationalisation.<\/p>\n

The SAR proposal would transfer the costs of running the company to the taxpayer, with Thames Water\u2019s creditors claiming the bill could come to \u00a32bn.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it is going to cost the taxpayer \u00a32bn to keep the company afloat then the taxpayer needs to receive something in return; that means control, so that we can fix the company and secure the water supply for thousands of families and businesses,\u201d a Burnham ally told The Sunday Times.<\/p>\n

L&VW, which includes fund managers such as Apollo Global Management, Elliott Management, Farallon Capital Management and Silver Point Capital, has also moved to strengthen its legal position in order to be prepared if Thames is nationalised.<\/p>\n

The consortium has hired top litigation and disputes firm Pallas Partners to work alongside Akin Gump, the law firm advising the consortium on the terms of their restructuring proposals.<\/p>\n

\u201cCreditors are assessing all potential routes that the situation regarding Thames Water may play out,\u201d said one person close to the consortium. \u201cThey want, and need, to be ready. There is no legal action being taken at this point. This is purely a precautionary measure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Thames Water\u2019s creditors were said to be still willing to pursue their bid for the debt-laden company, even if Burnham were to bring it into temporary nationalisation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe consortium is trying to pursue a solvent restructuring,\u201d said the person. \u201cThis would avoid a taxpayer funded administration process and help creditors recover as much as possible. It can bid alongside any others, but that prolongs everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

The future of Thames, which serves 16 million customers in London<\/a> and the Thames valley and is buckling under interest payments on debt it has run up since privatisation, will be one of the most pressing issues in Burnham\u2019s in-tray when he enters Downing Street.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe remain ready and willing to recapitalise Thames Water, return it to investment grade, and begin the long process of turning it around,\u201d said McTighe. \u201cWe urgently need government engagement to begin that process.\u201d<\/p>\n

McTighe is the chairman of Openreach, BT Group\u2019s infrastructure arm, and previously chaired the Daily Telegraph\u2019s publisher.<\/p>\n

The lenders have been trying to take ownership and bring it out of administration after a failed attempt to sell the utility to the US investment group KKR<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n

However, the creditors\u2019 plans were thrown into doubt last month when Emma Reynolds, the environment secretary, wrote to the regulator, Ofwat, voicing concerns about the terms of the deal<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The group of investors pursuing a rescue bid for Thames Water have said they are willing to discuss…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":700314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-700313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=700313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/700314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}