(Reuters) – British water companies Anglian Water and Northumbrian Water are exploring a sale of their Wave joint venture, Sky News reported.
Wave, founded as a 50-50 partnership in 2017, says on its website that it provides water and wastewater services to more than 300,000 businesses in England and Scotland.
Water companies are facing scrutiny after Britain’s largest supplier Thames Water said last month it was seeking an equity increase to cope with rising costs and debt.
British water regulator Ofwat said on Wednesday Thames Water was a long way from needing emergency intervention, despite investor reluctance to inject more money.
“From time to time we get approaches from interested parties seeking to buy a stake in Wave, and we consider these offers alongside other opportunities for the continued growth and success of the business,” Anglian and Northumbrian said in a joint statement on Thursday.
The identity of the potential bidders for Wave was unclear, while the price that a buyer might pay could not be ascertained, the Sky News report added.
(This story has been refiled to remove an extraneous company identifier code)
(Reporting by Prerna Bedi in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli and Alexander Smith)