Thames Water: City grandee and crisis specialist Sir Adrian Montague lined up as new chair
Thames Water has lined up long-standing city grandee and crisis specialist Sir Adrian Montague as it new chair, with the troubled utilities giant reshuffling its senior team amid growing financial pressure.
Montague will replace incumbent chairman Ian Marchant, who announced the end of his five year stint yesterday following the abrupt exit of Sarah Bentley as chief executive officer earlier this week.
His appointment could be announced within days, according to The Times.
The new hire is the former chairman of FTSE 100 insurance giant Aviva, and is seen as a safe pair of hands, acting a firefighter for multiple firms in times of crisis.
Previously, he worked as chief executive of the Treasury’s private finance initiative taskforce in the 1990s as it looked to bridge the gap between the City and Whitehall.
He later worked as chairman of British Energy in 2002 when it was bogged down in financial problems, and helped oversee the creation of Network Rail as deputy chairman, after the collapse of Railtrack.
Currently, Thames Water is weighed down by a £14bn debt pile, with the highest debt ratio in the sector at more than 80 per cent.
The government and Ofwat have been working on contingency plans for the company in case it collapses – including nationalisation – with the water needs of 15m customers at stake.
Its pension fund and sovereign wealth fund owners alongside the state-backed Chinese Investment Corporation and Infinity Investments, a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
Morning Wire has approached Thames Water for comment.