Special Financial Support

In 2009 Special Administration legislation was introduced which covered Insolvency procedures for the Water Industry. In effect this covers Insolvency procedures for the Water companies.

In practice, we have never had to use the special administration arrangements and have no reason to believe that we will need to do so in future.

We have an ongoing project to review the procedures for Special Administration and for water companies experiencing financial distress (which could lead to Special Administration). This is an enduring piece of work, and we have previously run exercises internally and discussed arrangements with key stakeholders as part of our normal preparation. As part of the project, we are looking to develop a call off contract for consulting support to ensure we have specialist assistance if needed. This is a precautionary measure. It will provide an additional safeguard for our prudent risk management processes.

The call off contract will be a phased implementation:

Phase 1

Phase 1 will be a call off contract for FOUR months with an option for a TWO month extension. It will have TWO suppliers - a PREFERRED supplier and a RESERVE supplier. The PREFFERED supplier will would be chosen to lead any work. However if the PREFFERED supplier was unable to support (for example through a professional conflict of interest such as being a statutory auditor to the company concerned) we would opt for the RESERVE supplier.

Phase 2

A longer term call off contract will be developed in 2018. Information relating to this will be provided nearer the time.

The rest of this ITT is concerned with Phase 1 only.

Overall Objectives

In very broad terms financial distress refers to a company experiencing problems paying its creditors. Special Administration is a form of insolvency - where the company cannot pay its creditors and has formally gone into receivership.

In our context financial distress is the precursor to Special Administration. We would want to avoid a formal route of special administration where possible.

Should a supplier be appointed under the Phase 1 call off contract, the objectives shall be:

• Provide Ofwat with support and advice on financial and corporate issues at relatively short notice. This will include assessment of companies' financial positions, scenario analysis, and action plans;

• Provide Ofwat with advice and support in dealing with potential financial distress at water companies including the approaches/actions/attitudes of external parties eg credit rating agencies, debt and equity investors; and

• Provide Ofwat with technical financial advice in respect to financial, capital and corporate restructuring.