Thames Water's £1bn sale

THAMES Water's once flourishing international business is likely to be broken up and sold for up to £1bn.

German utility giant RWE bought Thames in 2000 for £4.3bn and invested millions of pounds to develop the company as a global water giant. The strategy culminated in the £4.8bn acquisition of American Water Works, the largest water company in the US.

However, the spending spree left RWE struggling under huge debts and investment bank Goldman Sachs was appointed last year to sell Thames' overseas assets, which serve millions of people in countries, including Chile, Thailand, Indonesia and Turkey.

Japanese conglomerate Mitsui was seen as frontrunner to buy the entire portfolio, but has pulled out. Goldman has since restarted the process.

RWE Thames Water, as the division encompassing Thames and American Water Works is now known, has itself been surrounded by rumours of an impending sale or flotation, but these have been consistently denied by RWE.