Qatar tables $14.9 billion bid for Thames, paper says http://today.reuters.com/news/articlebusiness.aspx?type=ousiv&storyID=2006-10-16T035632Z_01_L1642215_RTRIDST_0_BUSINESSPRO-UTILITIES-THAMES-BID-DC.XML&from=business
Sun Oct 15, 2006
LONDON (Reuters) - A Qatar-led group is thought to be in the lead to buy Thames Water after tabling a bid worth about 8 billion pounds ($14.89 billion) over the weekend, the Independent newspaper said on Monday, without citing sources.
The deadline for bids imposed by Germany utility RWE AG, which owns Thames, expired on Saturday morning.
The RWE board is expected to meet in the coming days to consider the offers it has received, the Independent reported.
Qatar Investment Authority, the state investment arm of OPEC member Qatar, is jointly bidding for Thames alongside the infrastructure arm of Swiss bank UBS AG.
Australia's infrastructure powerhouse Macquarie Bank Ltd., which is bidding on its own, and British financier Guy Hand's Terra Firma Capital Partners, were also thought to have tabled bids worth about 7 billion pounds, the newspaper said.
Another bidder is understood to have been the Australian infrastructure investor Alinta, it added.
Thames Water was not immediately available for comment.
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