(Bloomberg) -- Heavily indebted Thames Water Utilities Ltd. hired a restructuring expert to its board in a bid to avoid potentially hefty fines from the UK regulator and restore its credit rating.
Aidan de Brunner was appointed as an independent non-executive director to Thames on Sept. 1 as part of an agreement with watchdog Ofwat, according to a filing.
The beleaguered utility is racing to find at least £3.3 billion in equity before it runs out of money in May. Its credit rating was downgraded to junk in July after its existing shareholders turned their back on the business, declaring it uninvestible. That meant Thames breached its license conditions with Ofwat, which could have led to hefty fines.
Instead, Thames agreed to take a set of remedial steps, including appointing two additional independent non-executive directors with restructuring experience. De Brunner, who founded recruitment firm Emperic according to his LinkedIn profile, will be one of them, according to a person familiar with the matter. They declined to be identified because the information isn’t public.
Ofwat is also due to appoint an independent monitor in the coming weeks, with access to Thames’ accounts, who would report back monthly on its performance against turnaround targets.
Last month, Thames increased its forecast for how much bills will rise under its next five-year business plan. The company now says the average household will see bills soar by as much as 59% in order to fund its turnaround plan to fix chronic leaks and sewage spills.
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