LONDON, June 29 (Reuters) – Britain’s biggest water
supplier Thames Water has “strong liquidity” but needs to
improve its financial resilience and operational performance,
the regulator said on Thursday, after emergency talks were held
over the company’s future.
The government said on Wednesday it was
monitoring Thames Water
, which supplies over a quarter of Britain’s population,
with contingency plans including temporary state ownership as
the indebted group fights to secure new funds.
Seeking to ease fears of an imminent collapse, water
regulator Ofwat said that Thames Water has 4.4 billion pounds
($5.6 billion) of cash and committed funding, which it
characterised as “strong liquidity”.
Thames Water though does have issues, it said, calling
its environmental record “poor”.
“Alongside the turnaround of their operational
performance, they need to improve their financial resilience
too,” Ofwat said in a statement on Thursday.
Ofwat said it was keeping the financial resilience of
water companies in England and Wales under close scrutiny,
adding that new investment in the sector had helped companies
strengthen their balance sheets over the last three years.
($1 = 0.7909 pounds)
(Reporting by Muvija M, writing by Sarah Young; Editing by Kate
Holton)
