Deals

AMP Capital increases stake in UK water utility

The Australian fund manager has bought an additional £27m stake in Thames Water, taking its total investment in the company to £144 million.

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Australian fund manager AMP Capital has increased its stake in Thames Water, the UK’s largest water and wastewater utility, by £27 million (€32 million; $44 million).

The deal brings AMP Capital’s total holding in the utility company to just over £144 million. AMP did not disclose the seller and could not be reached for comment by press time.

Boe Pahari, AMP Capital’s head of infrastructure Europe, said in a statement the stake increase is part of the investor’s strategy of “holding core quality infrastructure assets of a critical size that we are able to actively asset manage”.

AMP Capital has owned a stake in Thames Water since 2006, when the utility was bought by Kemble Water Holdings, a consortium led by two of Macquarie’s infrastructure funds, in a deal worth £8 billion.

AMP Capital has over £563 million of European funds under management. In addition to Thames Water, it manages several assets across the UK and Western Europe including rolling stock companies Angel Trains and Alpha Trains, oil storage company Compania Logistica de Hidrocarburos and utility Wales and West Utilities, among others.