UK's struggling Thames Water says efforts to raise new equity continue

Thames Water, Britain's biggest water supplier, said its efforts to raise new equity to ensure its survival continued but there would be no conclusion until the regulator made a final decision on how much it could raise bills for the next five years.

The company, which supplies about a quarter of the British population, is struggling under 16 billion pounds of debt. It was thrown into crisis in March when its owners said they would not provide a 500-million pound equity lifeline.

Its liquidity of 1.8 billion pounds ($2.31 billion) was sufficient to fund operations until the end of May 2025, it said on Tuesday.

Britain's new government could need to nationalise the company if it cannot secure new funding.

The crisis in Britain's privatised water industry has deepened this year as sewage releases into rivers and seas have become much more frequent after companies failed to invest enough in crumbling infrastructure.

Thames Water said it had made an underlying profit after tax of 140 million pounds ($179 million) for the year to end March, but the number of pollution incidents had increased.