Thames Water's biggest shareholder withdraws from board

Thames Water’s largest shareholder has withdrawn its representative from the crisis-hit utility's board, it was confirmed on Thursday.

Michael McNicholas represents the Ontario Municipal Retirement System, or Omers, and sat on the board as a non-executive director.

Omers holds a near 32% stake in Thames Water.

The country’s biggest water utility, it supplies millions of homes with water and sewerage services across London and the south east.

But it was thrown into crisis when its multinational owners refused to commit more than £3bn to help upgrade ageing infrastructure and shore up the debt-laden balance sheet.

On Wednesday, it was reported that a number of board members were likely to resign in the coming days.

In a brief statement, Thames Water said of McNicholas' resignation: "This follows the announcement made on 28 March that, based on the feedback provided to [regulator] Ofwat to Thames Water to date, the regulatory arrangements that would be expected to apply to Thames Water in AMP8 make the PR24 plan uninvestable.

"Thames Water continues to meet Ofwat’s expectation that independent non-executive directors form the largest single group on the board."

As well as Canada’s Omers, Thames Water is owned by a sovereign wealth funds and pension funds from countries including Abu Dhabi, Australia and China.