By Marc Jones
LONDON (Reuters) -Moody’s has withdrawn the credit rating of the financing arm of Thames Water’s parent company, citing a lack of information on the embattled unit.
“We have decided to withdraw the rating (of Thames Water Kemble Finance PLC) because we believe we have insufficient or otherwise inadequate information to support the maintenance of the rating,” Moody’s said in a statement.
Thames Water, which serves 16 million customers in and around London, is at the centre of a public backlash over the amount of sewage it has been pumping into Britain’s rivers and its huge debt that has raised the prospect of re-nationalisation.
It is the primary operating subsidiary of Thames Water Limited, which is in turn owned by Kemble Water Finance Limited, the financing subsidiary of which is Thames Water (Kemble) Finance PLC.
Despite the withdrawal, Moody’s said it was maintaining ratings on the two other parts of the complex Thames Water structure, Thames Water Utilities Ltd and Thames Water Utilities Finance Plc.
A spokesman for Thames Water said there would be “no impact to Thames Water, its liquidity or the services it provides to customers,” as a result of Moody’s decision and that it continued to provide the rating firm with “full information” to support its other ratings.
Moody’s did not provide any further details on what information was lacking with regard to the Kemble financing unit. Prior to the withdrawal, the rating had been a default territory ‘C’ grade.
(Reporting by Marc Jones in London and Unnamalai L in Bengaluru, Editing by Louise Heavens and Diane Craft)
