The EFRA Committee will question Thames Water's Sir Adrian
Montague, Chris Weston, and on Tuesday 15 July.
The water bosses will face scrutiny on Thames' financial issues,
including KKR's withdrawal in June of its takeover proposal, the
company's current financial status and performance, and the plans
and demands of its new prospective takeover
consortium.
This follows the publication of an 85-page
document, containing board minutes and financial information,
provided by Thames to the Committee. The Committee has also
published further correspondence between the Committee and Thames
requesting the disclosure of information that Thames has so far
failed to supply.
The session next week will see MPs also probe into Thames'
Management Retention Plan (MRP). In correspondence from Thames
Water to the Committee, published in June, the chair of
Thames, Sir Adrian Montague, disclosed that the MRP plan amounts
to £18.5 million in total, spread across the three separate
payments over two years, with 21 members of Thames Water's senior
management team having already received a first payment under the
Plan at 50% of base salary on 30 April 2025.
Following the receipt of this letter, the EFRA Committee wrote to Thames, with
further questions on the MRP and requested the minutes of the
meetings of its remuneration committee. The Committee at the same
time wrote to the Defra Secretary of
State, , and to Ofwat, on the MRP,
and asked for an assessment of the application of the Water
(Special Measures) Act to the MRP payments.
The responses from Thames Water, the Defra
Secretary, and Ofwat, have been
published by the Committee today.
Ahead of the evidence session it will be holding with Thames
Water next Tuesday, the Committee had also written to Sir Adrian
Montague requesting board minutes relating to KKR.
The Committee has this morning published Sir Adrian Montague's
response to this request, in which he states that “providing
copies of minutes of discussions in relation to the KKR proposal
could undermine the successful conclusion of a live transaction
which remains subject to negotiation”, and offers a private
discussion with the Chair of the EFRA Committee.
The Committee has written back to Sir
Adrian, again requesting the provision of the minutes, noting
that 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”. The Committee states that “a
private briefing is not appropriate in these circumstances, nor
does it meet the standards of transparency we seek to uphold on
this Committee”.
The Committee has also written to KKR with
questions regarding the withdrawal of its takeover bid.
ENDS
- Details of the 15 July evidence session will be sent out
later this week.
