(Reuters) -The British government has approached consultancies regarding taking the role of special administrators for Thames Water, in a sign that ministers are bracing themselves for imminent renationalisation, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.
The government approached consultancies, including Teneo, Interpath and EY, to run a so-called special administration regime, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.
There had been “informal engagement” with certain consultancies over a special administrator role but no formal interview process, a government official told the FT.
Thames Water declined to comment on the FT report.
A spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer told reporters on Friday: “We have not been interviewing consultancies about a special administration. We have already said we are closely monitoring the situation. The company remains stable.”
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, EY, Teneo and Interpath did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment out of regular business hours, while Downing Street deferred to DEFRA for a comment.
The government has been on standby to place the struggling utility company, which is at the centre of a scandal over sewage pollution in rivers, into a special administration regime given the risk of a financial collapse.
Britain’s water regulator, Ofwat, has already imposed a “Turnaround Oversight Regime” on Thames Water, the country’s biggest water company, and appointed an independent monitor to report on its progress in turning around the business.
Separately, ratings agency Moody’s downgraded Thames Water’s corporate family rating (CFR) deeper into junk territory earlier on Thursday.
(Reporting by Gnaneshwar Rajan in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Andrew MacAskill; Editing by Alan Barona and Catarina Demony)
