Thames Water warns nationalisation is likely if emergency creditor talks fall

Thames issued a ‘going concern’ warning in its annual report. Photograph: Jill Mead/The Guardian

Thames Water has said it could collapse into temporary nationalisation if emergency talks with creditors fail, as it slumped to a £1.6bn annual loss.

The loss for the 12 months to 31 March comes after a profit of £154m the previous year, even though revenues climbed by 8.7% to £2.7bn. It had net debt of £16.8bn, up from £15.2bn the year before.