Thames Water executives to receive bonuses from £3bn emergency loan. Utility’s chair tells MPs that retention payments are needed to prevent rivals ‘picking off’ staff.
Thames Water’s senior executives will receive lavish “retention incentives” as part of a £3bn emergency loan agreed by the utility that is seeking to stave off renationalisation. Some executives are in line for “50 per cent of salary; very substantial bonuses” as part of the loan agreed with creditors including the US hedge funds Elliott Management and Silver Point Capital, Thames Water chair Sir Adrian Montague told parliamentarians on Tuesday.
Montague claimed that Thames Water had to keep paying bonuses to prevent rival companies from “picking off” its best employees.
Labour MP Prem Sikka, Emeritus Professor of Accounting and Member of the UK House of Lords, comments:
“Thames Water executives to receive bonuses from £3bn emergency loan. Bonus for dumping sewage in rivers, not plugging leaks, neglecting investment, fleecing customers. They are laughing all the way to the bank. Govt/Regulators do nothing. Let customers vote on exec pay.”
