【金融时报120120】中投持股伦敦供水企业英国泰晤士水务公司
China buys stake in Thames Waterhttp://im.media.ft.com/content/images/79a4b876-950e-11e0-a648-00144feab49a.imghttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7b19ca2e-42c0-11e1-b756-00144feab49a.html#ixzz1k4VbD77t
A Chinese sovereign wealth fund has bought a stake in the water network that serves London, in what is the fund’s first UK acquisition following investment talks with British politicians.
The deal follows a visit to China this week by George Osborne, chancellor of the exchequer, who has been urging Chinese investors to inject money into British infrastructure projects.
Beijing has been seeking more lucrative returns than those available from low-yielding government bonds.
In a statement on Friday the China Investment Corporation, the country’s $410bn sovereign wealth fund, confirmed it had taken an 8.68 per cent stake in the holding company that owns Thames Water.
CIC said the deal had been done through a wholly-owned subsidiary but gave no further details on how much it had paid for the stake.
In December Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, acquired about 9.9 per cent of Thames Water from a consortium of investors led by Australian investment bank Macquarie.
The bank declined at the time to reveal terms of the sale of the stake in Kemble Water, which is the holding company for the UK utility.
Mr Osborne this week held what were described as “very serious meetings of substance” during a short visit to Beijing, including with Lou Jiwei, chairman of CIC, as well as the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the world’s biggest bank by market capitalisation.
Mr Lou wrote in the Financial Times last November that he saw a “win-win” situation where Chinese funds would help to update the west’s infrastructure – starting with Britain – on the grounds that such schemes offered solid returns.
He praised Britain as “one of the most open economies in the world” with a “sound legal system”. In his article, Mr Lou suggested Chinese companies and investors wanted to own and operate infrastructure in the west as well as help build it.
Thames Water, which provides sewerage services to 14m customers and water to 8.8m in London and the Thames Valley, was sold for an enterprise value of £8bn by German utility group RWE in 2006, which included £4.8bn in cash and £3.2bn in debt.
The water holding company is owned by a consortium of investors, the largest of which are funds managed by Macquarie. The Australian bank also manages investment of the utility on behalf of other shareholders.
The Macquarie-led consortium, which beat three other serious bidders in the 2006 auction including one led by the Qatar Investment Authority, said it remained committed to managing Thames Water as its majority owner.
It is the largest of the 10 water and sewerage companies in England and Wales by both regulatory capital value and number of customers served.
The latest investment in Thames Water comes halfway through the second year of a five-year funding settlement for water companies in England and Wales with the industry watchdog Ofwat.
It also follows the publication of a government white paper, which has been generally interpreted as seeking to protect the industry as a safe haven for equity and debt investors.
KPMG and Linklaters were advisors to CIC according to people familiar with the situation. Both declined to comment on the transaction.
Macquarie declined to comment.
中国主权投资基金——中国投资有限责任公司(China Investment Corporation)将收购一家向伦敦提供供水服务的水务公司高达10%股份。这笔交易可能会在英国财政大臣乔治-奥斯本(George Osborne)下周访问北京期间达成。这将是中国投资公司第一次在海外投资收购公用事业股份。
中国投资公司希望入股公用事业公司能够带来比购买政府债券更高的收益。中国投资公司即将入股的这家公司名称为托马斯水务公司(Thames Water)，该公司负责向伦敦及附近郊区提供供水服务。一位知情人士透露，中国投资公司可能会收购托马斯水务公司10%股份，但交易价格不详。
去年12月，全球最大的主权投资基金——阿布扎比投资管理局(Abu Dhabi Investment Authority)收购了托马斯水务公司9.9%的股份。这家公司没有向外界公开交易信息。
英国财政大臣乔治-奥斯本将与中国投资公司董事长楼继伟举行会面，届时双方将会讨论投资入股的细节。楼继伟去年11月曾经为《金融时报》撰文称，希望公司对英国基础和公用事业的投资能够带来双赢。
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