(Reuters) – A group of Thames Water bondholders said on Thursday it had submitted a rival 3 billion pound ($3.9 billion) financing offer for the struggling British utilities firm.
The group said that it includes holders of more than 75% of Thames Water’s class B bonds and that the “more affordable facility” was open to all Class A and Class B bondholders.
Thames Water, Britain’s largest water utility, has around 16 billion pounds in debt, mostly through class A debt.
“The financing that has been delivered, and which funds a path to completing the company’s equity raise, provides twice the capital at a far lower cost and on more flexible terms than the expensive, restrictive alternative recently proposed by the Class A Group,” it said in a statement.
The group that represents more than 12 billion pounds of Thames Water’s Class A debt, on Monday urged others to back its plan before the deadline next week.
That offer proposes an initial 1.5 billion pound debt facility, plus a possible further 1.5 billion pounds package for Thames Water in at a nearly 10% interest cost.
Any deal needs 75% of all classes of debt to approve it, with a first court hearing scheduled for Dec. 17.
Thames Water, which signed the class A proposal last month, declined to comment on the new bondholder offer, which was first reported by Sky News.
($1 = 0.7745 pounds)
(Reporting by Yamini Kalia and Prerna Bedi in Bengaluru; Andres Gonzalez in London, Editing by Abinaya Vijayaraghavan and Alexander Smith)
