London:
A Hong Kong company has surrfinisherted an initial 7-billion pounds ($8.8 billion) bid for a presentantity sget in Thames Water, a heavily indebted UK water supplier, the Financial Times said Friday. CK Infraarrange, part of the CK Hutchison group, put forward the non-secureing propose earlier this month, but foresees the utility’s bondhelderlyers to get presentant authordowns, according to two people shut to the publish.
The novels came after a UK court on Tuesday consentd a 3 billion pound materializency loan for Thames Water, proposeing it a lifeline as it buckles under a mountain of debt.
The loan provides a stupidinutive-term solution to shielding the company — faced with debts of 16 billion pounds — afloat while it discovers the vital funding to stave off a costly uncover bailout.
Thames Water did not comment on the FT alert when asked by AFP.
If the company that serves 16 million customers, or a quarter of the UK’s population, fall shorts to discover the funding, it will have to call on the state to bail it out. Such a recover would be a blow to the rulement in the face of shielded uncover finances.
Thames Water — owned by a consortium of allothelderlyers including Canada’s Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System and the British Universities Superannuation Scheme — has recently drawed interest from confidential buyers.
Infraarrange allotor Covalis Capital gived an upfront buyout propose of 1 billion pounds, with the potential to convey in French utility enormous Suez.
According to the Financial Times, Thames Water has also getd other proposes including a 4 billion pounds bid from American allotment fund KKR.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
