(Reuters) – Britain’s Thames Water has asked KKR and Castle Water to provide more detail on bids for stakes in the struggling water utility, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The country’s biggest water supplier, which has 18 billion pounds ($22.8 billion) of debt, has received non-binding offers from U.S. investment company KKR and UK-based water company Castle for 4 billion pounds each, Bloomberg reported previously.
An offer from London-based asset manager Covalis Capital, which is also a junior creditor of Thames Water, is less favoured by the company, the report said.
Covalis, in partnership with French waste management company Suez Group, has offered a 1 billion pound investment in Thames. The plan involves the sale of certain assets before floating the remainder of the group and giving Britain a so-called golden share.
Thames, KKR, and Covalis did not immediately respond to requests for comment while Castle declined to comment.
A court-approved 3 billion pound debt lifeline for Thames Water came into effect on Friday, helping to avoid a collapse of the UK’s largest water supplier.
($1 = 0.7898 pounds)
(Reporting by Prerna Bedi in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar, Vijay Kishore and David Goodman)
