Latest news with #SirAdrianMontague
The Sun
09-07-2025
- Business
- The Sun
Thames Water bosses set to be grilled by MPs over bonus payouts from £3bn rescue loan
BOSSES at Thames Water face a fresh grilling by MPs over bonus payouts from a £3billion rescue loan. The stricken utility firm dished out £2.5million to senior execs despite attempts by ministers to block the payments. Documents released yesterday by the environment select committee reveal Thames paid £2.46million to 21 managers on April 30. It was the first of three bonuses due under a management retention scheme. Thames paused that in May amid a backlash over the planned £18.5million in bonuses being paid from a government loan. Environment Secretary Steve Reed had been asked to claw back the payments. But in a letter to the Commons committee, Thames chairman Sir Adrian Montague said the board did not intend to recover the money. In another letter to the committee, industry regulator Ofwat said rules limiting bonuses only apply to those at the very top of the company. Boss David Black said that as a result, 'the payments made on April 30 fall outside the scope of the rule'. The committee has now recalled Thames bosses for questioning next week. MPs will also demand answers on why private equity firm KKR withdrew from a £4billion rescue deal. Thames Water, heavily in debt and serving 16million customers, said it is now negotiating with 'certain senior creditors'. 1 WATER BILL REFUNDS PARKING FINES ROCKET PRIVATE parking firms are set to issue 14.5million ticket s in a year, a study says. The RAC said requests to the DVLA for driver data hit 7.2million in six months — up 12 per cent on the previous year. At this rate, drivers face daily fines totalling £4.1million, the organisation said. It blamed faulty machines, aggressive tactics and misleading signs for the increase. Five firms, including Parkingeye and Euro Car Parks, account for nearly half the tickets. The previous Government promised a new code of practice in 2019, but regulations have been delayed. HOMES BOOST SEVEN major housebuilders have agreed to pay £100million to support affordable housing across the UK following a probe. The Competition and Markets Authority found signs firms including Barratt Redrow, Bellway, and Taylor Wimpey, shared sensitive information which could have impacted housing prices. The payment is the largest secured by the CMA and will fund hundreds of homes. JET2 HOLS JOY JET2 has reported booming sales, with a 12 per cent rise in passenger numbers to 19.77million over the past year. The airline and holiday provider saw revenues jump 15 per cent to £7.17billion, driven by demand for last-minute getaways. Package holiday bookings grew by eight per cent, while flight-only customer numbers also surged. Profits before tax rose 11 per cent to £577.7million.
Telegraph
09-07-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Thames Water executives in line to split ‘astonishing' £13m bonus
Thames Water executives are in line for more than £13m in retention bonuses over the coming year despite the company's ongoing debt crisis. The troubled utility company revealed in a letter to MPs that 21 of its highest-paid executives were slated to receive six-figure payouts between now and June 2026 under its controversial 'management retention plan'. Payments were paused in May following outcry from MPs, but Thames said it had not yet decided on the future of the scheme, suggesting it could be resurrected. The utility added that it had no plans to claw back any of the money already paid out, including £2.5m awarded in April. MPs have called on both the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and regulator Ofwat to reclaim the money amid concerns the utility giant was seeking to 'circumvent' a ban on bonuses in the sector. However, in a letter to the head of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, Thames Water chairman Sir Adrian Montague said there had been 'no discussions with either Defra or Ofwat in relation to recovering those payments which have already been made'. Charlie Maynard, the Liberal Democrat MP for Witney, said: 'Despite their promises, this Government and the regulator are completely failing to get tough with water companies and deliver the wholesale reform the sector needs.' The payments have sparked a backlash from campaigners and MPs, given that the water company is teetering on the brink of collapse as it struggles under a near-£20bn debt pile. Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, told The Telegraph the fact that the company was even considering handing millions more to executives was 'astonishing given what a mess Thames Water is in'. Steve Reed, the Environment Secretary, told MPs in May that customers were 'right to be furious about the rate of bonuses that chief execs were paying themselves for overseeing often catastrophic levels of failure'. Sir Adrian said the company had paused its retention scheme 'to await final guidance from the water industry regulator on whether the payments would be allowed under the Water (Special Measures) Act 2025'. The Water (Special Measures) Act 2025, which was introduced in February, gave Ofwat new powers to ban bonuses at water companies that failed to meet environmental standards. It is not clear if the rules also apply to the retention scheme. Sir Adrian said: 'The guidance is still relatively new, and we will take the appropriate amount of time to consider the rule and engage further with Ofwat.' 'Lack of transparency' David Black, Ofwat's chief executive, said in a separate letter to the environment committee that he was 'disappointed at the lack of transparency Thames Water had shown' regarding pay and bonuses. He added: 'At a time when remuneration in the water sector is under significant public scrutiny, we expect water companies to be proactive and transparent and share any information that may relate to our regulatory requirements, such as executive remuneration.' Mr Maynard said: 'The bosses of companies that are failing in these basic duties should be banned from receiving bonuses until they get their house in order.' The environment committee said it was recalling Sir Adrian, Chris Weston, Thames's chief executive, and Ian Pearson, an independent director, on July 15 to answer more questions about the state of the company's finances. Alistair Carmichael, the committee's chairman, said in a letter to Sir Adrian: 'It is unfortunate that recent evidence given to the committee has been inaccurate and has had to be clarified to such a degree that it has removed the possibility of our working together on the basis of trust.' Thames Water, which serves 16m UK customers, is facing severe financial difficulties after it built up billions of pounds of debt under previous owner Macquarie, an Australian investment bank. The crisis prompted Thames to secure a £3bn bailout package from lenders in February this year to stave off a potential bankruptcy. It was later fined a record £122.7m by Ofwat in May for pumping sewage into lakes, rivers and waterways and breaching rules on payments of dividends. The intervention contributed to KKR's decision to walk away from a £4bn takeover bid, which has left Thames Water on the brink of nationalisation. Taking control of the utility giant through a special administration regime would cost the Government up to £4.1bn over an 18-month period, it has been estimated. A Thames Water spokesman said the retention scheme was agreed by both the board and creditors. The spokesman added: 'Retention plans are commonplace in these types of deals for precisely this purpose and ours was based on extensive benchmarking of similar capital market events like M&A deals and restructurings.'
Reuters
09-07-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Thames Water grants bonuses despite UK opposition, government documents show
July 9 (Reuters) - Britain's Thames Water awarded bonuses worth 2.5 million pounds ($3.40 million) to its senior staff, despite efforts by the UK government to block the payments, according to documents shared by the UK Parliament's environment committee. In a letter to the committee, Thames Water chairman Sir Adrian Montague said no discussions have been held with the government or water regulator Ofwat to recover the payments. The news was first reported by The Financial Times on Wednesday. ($1 = 0.7364 pounds)
The Guardian
09-07-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Thames Water paid out bonuses using £3bn emergency loan, documents reveal
Thames Water paid nearly £2.5m to senior managers from an emergency loan that was meant to be used to keep the failing utilities company afloat – and has refused to claw back the payments, newly released documents reveal. The struggling water supplier paid bonuses totalling £2.46m to 21 managers on 30 April. The managers are due to receive the same amount again in December, and a further £10.8m collectively next June, the chair of Thames Water, Sir Adrian Montague, said in a letter to environment select committee. The company paused its management retention payments plan (MRP) in May after the Guardian revealed Montague wrongly told MPs that creditors had 'insisted' on the payments. The environment secretary, Steve Reed, had been asked to claw back the payments. However, Montague said the board did not intend to recover the money, and suggested the two further tranches of bonuses could still be paid. In a letter to the committee's chair, Alistair Carmichael, sent in June and published on Wednesday, Montague wrote: 'The MRP was and remains paused. The board has not taken further decisions on the MRP at this stage.' Montague added that there had been no attempt from Ofwat, the water regulator for England and Wales, or from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to recoup the funds that had already been paid. Ministers had hoped to block bonuses paid from the loan under new legislation, but the rules limit the payouts, which can be stopped to those at the very top of the company, such as the chief executive, chief financial officer and chair. The total planned payments are on average far more than double the salaries of the unnamed recipients, according to a table included in documents released by the committee. For instance, four people with salaries of up to £400,000 are due to receive up to £1.13m each – nearly three years' extra pay –as long as they stay at the business for the next year. Minutes from a Thames board meeting, which was convened to discuss the bonuses, suggested the retention payments were designed to avoid the new legislation, which bans performance-related bonuses for water bosses. They read: 'The [remuneration] committee requested to reconfirm whether the MRP was consistent with the Water (Special Measures) Act and related Ofwat consultation and it was confirmed that the MRP was a retention payment rather than a bonus, and had no performance-related element. As such, it was not restricted by the Water (Special Measures) Act.' However, payments to the company's finance chief, Steve Buck, who was in line for a retention bonus to be paid in June, could potentially be blocked, Reed indicated in a letter to the committee, also published on Wednesday. Reed said: 'I expect Ofwat to assess whether Thames Water has breached the performance related executive (chief executives and chief financial officers) pay prohibition rule with any of these payments and, if so, to take appropriate action.' The committee said it had recalled Montague and the chief executive of Thames Water, Chris Weston, for a hearing on 15 July. The bonuses came out of a controversial £3bn loan, which was meant to stabilise the company's finances. The creditor loan, which was challenged in court by rival bondholders, has an interest rate of 9.75%, plus fees. It was given by hedge funds, banks and other big investment firms already owned about £11.5bn, including Aberdeen, M&G, Elliott Management and Invesco. Thee same creditors are now the lead contenders to take over formal ownership of Thames in return for another £5.3bn in equity investment and debt. They were forced to step in to avoid Thames Water collapsing into temporary nationalisation after the US private equity firm KKR pulled out of a rescue deal. Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion During a meeting with the environment committee in May, Montague told MPs that senior managers were in line for substantial retention bonuses because they were Thames's 'most precious resource'. But the disclosure provoked fury as the company had said its finances were 'hair raising' and that it had come 'very close to running out of money entirely' last year. Thames is in a desperate race to raise funds and persuade the water regulator to let it off hundreds of millions of pounds of fines or risk being renationalised. Ofwat was also not made aware of the bonuses until they had already been paid, its chief executive, David Black, told the environment committee in letters published on Wednesday. Black said he was 'disappointed at the lack of transparency' shown by the company, and added: 'At a time when remuneration in the water sector is under significant public scrutiny, we expect water companies to be proactive and transparent.' He suggested the bonus ban could be broadened beyond the current criteria, allowing payments to other members of the management team to be blocked. Black said the ban was to be reviewed in 2027 but the date could be brought forward. Thames, which serves 16 million customers in London and south-east England, this week warned households it would announce a hosepipe ban unless the water shortage changed significantly. The company and Defrahave been contacted for comment.
Sky News
10-06-2025
- Business
- Sky News
Hong Kong giant CKI demands to rejoin auction of stricken Thames Water
The Hong Kong-based investor CK Infrastructure Holdings (CKI) is demanding to be readmitted to the auction of ailing Thames Water, days after its preferred bidder walked away and pushed it closer to the abyss of nationalisation. Sky News can exclusively reveal that CKI wrote to Sir Adrian Montague, the chairman of Thames Water, on Monday, seeking access to due diligence materials and insisting that it could be ready to table a formal bid to take control of the company within six weeks. In the letter, which was signed by Andy Hunter, CKI's deputy managing director, the owner of Northumbrian Water said it was keen to rejoin the Thames Water board's equity-raise process, roughly three months after submitting a multibillion pound proposal to take control. Britain's biggest water utility has been plunged back into crisis by a decision last week by KKR, the private equity firm, to abandon its status as preferred bidder. Sky News revealed that the decision was made after talks between KKR and Downing Street officials amid concerns about the political risk of bailing out a company which supplies essential services to more than 15m people. Since then, Thames Water's biggest group of creditors - accounting for approximately £13bn of its vast debt-pile - has submitted what it described as a £17bn proposal to recapitalise the company. This, the bondholders said, would comprise £3bn of new equity and more than £2bn of debt funding. Existing shareholders would be completely wiped out, while there would also be several billion pounds of debt writedowns aimed at restoring financial resilience and improving services, 2:27 The bondholders are reported to seeking immunity from prosecution for Thames Water's environmental failings, while they also want an agreement that Ofwat, the industry regulator, would drastically reduce the level of financial penalties facing the company. Last month, Thames Water was fined a record £123m over sewage leaks and the payment of dividends, with Ofwat lambasting the company over its performance and governance. Sir Adrian has run into yet more difficulties in recent days, with MPs on a key Commons select committee questioning evidence he had given to it and calling on Thames Water to claw back hundreds of thousands of pounds paid to a number of senior executives as retention payments in recent months. Under new laws, Thames Water is among half a dozen water companies which have been barred from paying bonuses this year because of their poor environmental records. 1:33 CKI owns large swathes of British infrastructure, including Northumbrian Water, Northern Gas Networks, UK Power Networks and Eversholt, the rolling-stock leasing company which has been put up for sale. Its expertise in running major companies of the scale of Thames Water would resolve a headache for ministers anxious to avoid placing the group into a special administration regime (SAR), which would incur a multibillion pound bill for taxpayers. Ministers are also said to be wary about the lack of experience in the bondholder group at running a major water company, although Sky News revealed last week that the business veteran Mike McTighe had been lined up to spearhead their interest. "This is a proven operator versus a group of financial engineers," said one person close to CKI. However, a takeover of Thames Water by CKI could yet face stiff political opposition. In April, a cross-party group of politicians wrote to Pat McFadden, the Cabinet Office minister, expressing concerns about CKI's links to Beijing. Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative Party leader and a strident critic of Chinese investment in the UK, posted on social media last week that a CKI takeover of Thames Water "should be avoided at all costs". CKI had already expressed frustration at being eliminated from the Thames Water process in April, with The Times reporting that it had written to Ofwat to express its dismay. In recent weeks, the government has described Thames Water as "stable", but said it was ready to step in and take control of the company if required to. The company effectively faces a deadline of late July to finalise a rescue deal because of a referral of its five-year regulatory settlement to the Competition and Markets Authority.
