Thames asks for more funds and more flexibility

(by Verity Mitchell)

Thames Water has made a new request for more funds and more flexibility in disbursement under its emergency facilities.

So far, it has drawn £1.426bn of the initial £1.5bn available under the super senior facility agreed with its A creditors. On the 12 February, Thames launched a process to allocate £823m of additional funds — the first part of an ‘Accordion’ facility of £1.5bn.

Thames has now secured this initial funding commitment. This brings the total amount available to £2.25bn. There are also some deferred commitments totalling c.£73m. Funding remains subject to the satisfaction and/or waiver of relevant conditions precedent, some of which have not yet been satisfied and/or waived in full. No funding solution has been agreed as yet between Thames and its creditors.

Thames has also launched proposals to provide more flexibility in respect of future Accordion funding requests, which are more tailored to the company's operational needs. These include:

• Waiving the Accordion conditions to permit Thames to draw £410m of the new commitment. 

• Extending the June Release Condition under the facility to permit the drawdown of £205m in March 2026.

• Amending the super senior funding documentation to allow Thames to use the Accordion in accordance with its liquidity needs.

• Allowing creditors to switch between super senior loans and super senior bonds on a cashless, one-time basis.

These proposals have a voting date of 16 March 2026 and follow seven previous sets of consent requests which were approved by creditors.