Investors tell Thames Water to ‘eat humble pie’ over failed takeover and open bids

A director at CKI said he was ‘frustrated’ to be shut out of the process to save the debt-laden water company. Photograph: Vuk Valcic/SOPA Images/Shutterstock

Thames Water’s bosses should eat “humble pie” over a failed takeover process last year and let other firms bid for it, according to a Hong Kong investment group angling to buy the troubled water company.

CK Infrastructure (CKI), which is owned by Hong Kong’s richest man, Li Ka-shing, has already acquired Northumbrian Water and has been trying to launch a bid for Thames since February last year.