With the appointment of LEK Consulting as an independent monitor of the corporation by the industry regulator this week, the scrutiny of the crisis-plagued utility Thames Water will intensify.
According to news, Ofwat is anticipated to make the announcement of LEK’s appointment in the coming days.
The action was taken in August after Thames Water’s loss of two investment grade credit ratings jeopardized one of the requirements it had to meet to keep its operating license.
Growing predictions that the company may need to be nationalized in the upcoming months despite a struggle to secure new capital from private investors sparked the ratings downgrades.
According to News last week, lenders who own £12 billion of Thames Water’s debt have met with Ofwat in person to present a rescue proposal that they hope will prevent the company from going bankrupt.
In order to facilitate a restructuring that would involve a significant debt-for-equity swap and see new stock poured into the crisis-hit utility, which serves about 15 million consumers in London and the southeast, the syndicate is scrambling to find a solution.
