Macquarie Group Ltd is among the banks that lent to Thames Water, Britain’s biggest water supplier that’s been engulfed in uncertainty over its debt pile.
 
The Australian bank’s private credit funds invested roughly £130 million in debt held by the utility’s holding company Kemble Water Finance Ltd in 2018 and 2020, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The investment amounts to roughly 9% of Kemble Water Finance’s debt instruments and is separate from the £190 million loan due April 30 that Kemble has warned it won’t be able to repay, the person said, asking not to be identified discussing non-public information. 

Macquarie has grown to become one of the world’s biggest manager of infrastructure assets, snapping up everything from US toll roads to European airports. It even previously owned Thames Water after acquiring the utility in 2006 for £4.8 billion, as part of the Kemble consortium. It sold its final stake in the business roughly a decade later. 

“We manage debt investments on behalf of long-term institutional investors in a range of infrastructure companies, providing long-term financing for essential infrastructure,” a spokesperson for the bank said in an emailed statement. “Macquarie has not had any control or influence over Thames Water’s operating company since 2017.”

The Times previously reported Macquarie’s involvement. 

ING Groep NV is among lenders on the loan that’s due for repayment by Kemble Water Finance this month. Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and Allied Irish Banks are also lenders to Thames Water’s parent company, the Financial Times previously reported. 

Shareholders have refused to inject £500 million into the troubled supplier as it attempts to get approval from the regulator Ofwat to raise customer bills to help repair its finances. Creditors of the utility have started to organise ahead of potential restructuring talks.

Thames Water has £15.6 billion of net debt at the operating company level, including almost £11 billion of bonds and about £1.5 billion of bank loans. 
 

  - Bloomberg