Government lines up insolvency firm in case of Thames Water collapse

The Government has appointed insolvency specialists to step up planning for Thames Water in case the troubled water company collapses.

Transcript

00:00Thameswater, which has 16 million customers, mostly in London, continues to face financial

00:10turmoil. They remain locked in talks over a rescue funding deal with a number of senior

00:17creditors. But they recently raised doubts over whether the creditors refinancing and

00:25restructuring plans could be completed, which could ultimately result in a state rescue

00:32deal. Bosses nonetheless said they had seen good progress over the potential deal, with

00:39hopes it could be completed by the end of the year. In June, private equity firm KKR pulled

00:46out of plans to inject around £4bn of cash into the company in a bid to keep it afloat.

00:53The company recorded a pre-tax loss of £1.65bn in the year to the end of March, while overall

01:02debts have swollen to an unimaginable £17.7bn. The government has now appointed insolvency

01:11specialists to step up planning for Thameswater in case the company collapses. FTI Consulting

01:20has been bought in as an administrator if Thameswater fails to secure this badly needed funding from

01:29lenders. Contingency plans could see Thameswater placed into a special administration regime,

01:37meaning it would be put into an insolvency process.