Thames Water has selected KKR as its 'preferred partner'. This New York-based private equity company, could take a £4bn stake in the company. Thames Water is a privatized English Water company, that has, over decades, greatly mismanaged its finances. It spent much of its income on shareholder payments and rewards to its CEOs. It also illegally pumped out untreated sewage into rivers and the seas to save money. Very little of Thames Water's profit was spent on necessary, new infrastructure. The company also borrowed money, to artificially inflate its shares. Thames Water is now keen to charge its customers more, so it can finally get round to mandatory infrastructure updates (https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uks-thames-water-names-kkr-frontrunner-equity-raise-2025-03-31/). This may well be an attempt, to stave off renationalization by Thames Water. They could be hoping that KKR's 'investment', given the current anti-environmentalism evident in the US, makes it more difficult for the UK government to bring this monopoly back into public ownership (where it belongs).
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