Jilted Thames Water bidder accused of China hyperlinks

Thames Water’s jilted bidder is trying to ‘bully its way back into contention’ and has ‘an umbilical link to the Chinese state’, a source close to the bid process has said.

Hong Kong-based infrastructure investor CKI lost out last year to a group of the stricken utility firm’s creditors led by Wall Street hedge funds. They plan to write off some of the water supplier’s £20 billion of debt in return for control of Thames Water and a waiver from regulator Ofwat on future fines and penalties for poor performance.

CKI, which owns Northumbrian Water and a string of critical energy assets, claims it would be better to allow Thames Water to enter a form of administration so CKI can re-enter the bid process. It recently said the Government and Ofwat were ‘sleepwalking into a dreadful outcome’ if Thames Water were taken over by its creditors. 

But the source said CKI was ‘interfering in another country’s key economic decisions’ in a ‘tactic straight from the Beijing playbook’, noting that chairman Victor Li is an advisor to the Chinese Communist Party.

Foul play: David Thewlis, left, Naomi Battrick and Jason Watkins in Dirty Business

It comes as a petition calling for a referendum to take the water industry back into state ownership, backed by Ash Smith, who was played by David Thewlis in the hit docu-drama Dirty Business about Thames Water, has had 70,000 signatures as public anger mounts over leaks, sewage spills and higher bills.

Smith, a retired police officer, investigated numerous sewage discharges, especially into Oxfordshire’s River Windrush. The petition will be considered for debate in Parliament if it reaches 100,000 signatures.

Ministers are under mounting pressure not to allow Chinese-linked firms access to vital infrastructure following a spate of spying and hacking scandals linked to Beijing.

But they are also keen to avoid picking up the bill for any re-nationalisation of Thames Water if talks between creditors and regulators fail.

Andrew Hunter, co-managing director of CKI, said: ‘These claims are factually wrong and distract from the real issue: securing the best long-term owner for Thames Water.’

CKI had three decades of operating UK infrastructure ‘to a high standard’, he added, and the bid process ‘should be re-opened and run on a level playing field’.

A spokesman for creditor group London & Valley Water said CKI’s bid ‘would have cut Thames Water’s investment programme significantly’.

‘CKI is not the preferred bidder because they put forward a wholly inadequate offer,’ she added.