New Thames chairman to close Cayman Islands arm

Thames Water has brought in the former boss of energy company SSE as its new chairman, with a brief to clean up the company’s murky corporate structure.

Ian Marchant will review the group’s governance, and Thames said it will close its Cayman Islands subsidiaries, used to raise a loan to repay borrowings its former owner Macquarie made when it bought Thames in 2006 for £8 billion.

A leak of 13 million files — dubbed the Paradise Papers — brought further scrutiny to wealthy individuals and companies who use offshore jurisdictions, often to avoid tax, this month.

Thames said its Cayman Island subsidiaries have “always been fully registered in the UK for tax purposes but no longer serve their original purpose of enabling smoother access to the global bond markets”.

Critics of Thames, which has 15 million customers, have said it is difficult to hold the company to account because of its complex corporate structure.

New chief executive Steve Robertson wants to clean up Thames’s reputation and the water regulator, Ofwat, made an unprecedented demand on it this year to improve its transparency.

Tideway, the super-sewer project under the Thames part-funded by Thames Water customers, also raised £250 million yesterday by selling a green bond to City investors. The 10-year IOU saw £800 million of orders.