Investors in Thames Water have agreed to put an extra £750 million ($962 million) of equity funding into the troubled utility to hold off a temporary takeover by the government.
Britain's biggest water company said Monday that shareholders would provide the additional cash to support its turnaround plan running through to March 2025, but warned that "significant additional funding" would be needed beyond that date.
The utility anticipates that an additional £2.5 billion ($3.2 billion) of equity funding will be needed in the five years to 2030.
"The additional investment announced today is the largest equity support package ever seen in the UK water sector and underscores our shareholders' commitment to delivering Thames' turnaround," the company's chairman, Ian Marchant, said in a statement.
Thames Water, which provides water and wastewater services to 15 million people in London and the southeast of England, has been at the center of a wider crisis in the sector.
Heavily indebted UK water companies are under growing financial pressure as interest rates soar and they must also invest billions of pounds to upgrade aging infrastructure and tackle sewage spills and leakage.
— This is a developing story and will be updated.
