STORY
The chair of Thames Water, Sir Adrian Montague, has conceded he “may have misspoken” when telling MPs that senior executive bonuses worth up to 50% of salary were “insisted upon” by the company’s creditors. His clarification to the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) select committee casts doubt on whether Parliament was accurately informed about the controversial retention payments, leading to a fear that the chair had deliberately misled Parliament.
Last week, Sir Adrian told MPs that lenders behind Thames Water’s £3 billion emergency loan had demanded substantial bonuses to retain key staff amid “hair-raising” financial pressures. Those comments sparked criticism, given the company’s warning that it had come “very close to running out of money entirely.”
However, documents seen by the Guardian newspaper, including the loan term sheet and a recent High Court judgment, indicate that while creditors agreed to the scheme, they did not require it. In a letter to the EFRA committee made public today, Sir Adrian said:
“I appreciate that in the heat of the moment I may have misspoken when I stated that the creditors insisted on the management retention plan.”
He went on to explain that the retention plan “rose from our discussions related to our liquidity extension transaction” and was agreed as part of a broader effort to safeguard experienced executives during a period of uncertainty. Thames Water is likely to issue further clarifications about their chair “misspeaking” later today.