Thames Water has launched its sixteenth set of creditor consent requests, this time to increase its super senior funding facility by 2.4 billion pounds, to a maximum of 5.4 billion pounds. The company has already drawn 2.65 billion pounds of the 3 billion pounds currently available, and says on its latest forecasts the existing facility provides liquidity only until the end of 2026 or the start of 2027, before its recapitalisation can complete.
The proposed increase, with commitments to be sought in tranches over the coming months, would extend liquidity into autumn 2027 and fund the capital programme in the meantime. A new subsidiary, Thames Water Super Senior Upsize Issuer plc, would be created to lend through the facility. The requests also seek waivers to allow a further 350 million pound drawdown from existing commitments in November, and to extend a funding-release condition deadline from October 31 to November 30. Creditors have until October 29 to vote; the previous fifteen consent rounds were all approved.
The utility carries about 20 billion pounds of debt, Reuters reported. Its senior creditors, organised as the London and Valley Water consortium, are pursuing a rescue involving debt write-downs and new equity to avert temporary government control, and named a proposed board in August to run a decade-long overhaul if their plan is approved.
Thames is the limiting case of the UK water model: an essential network whose investment backlog was financed with debt for two decades, now refinanced in public, one consent vote at a time.