Thames Water Overseas Limited enters creditors' voluntary liquidation

Thames Water Overseas Limited (company number 02909020), a holding company in the Thames Water group, has gone into creditors' voluntary liquidation. Three notices about the company were published in The London Gazette on 6 November 2026. They record that Richard Beard and Richard Fleming of Alvarez & Marsal Europe LLP were appointed joint liquidators on 29 October 2026.

At a general meeting on 29 October 2026, the company's members passed a special resolution that it be wound up voluntarily and an ordinary resolution appointing the joint liquidators, according to the notice of the resolutions. The appointment notice gives the type of liquidation as creditors' voluntary and says the liquidators were appointed by members and creditors. The notices do not give a reason for the winding-up.

What the company is

The Companies House register lists Thames Water Overseas as a private limited company incorporated on 16 March 1994, with its nature of business given as activities of head offices. The register showed its status as active on 6 November 2026.

The company's most recent filed accounts, for the 18 months to 30 September 2024, were approved by its board on 23 December 2025. They describe it as an intermediate holding company within the Kemble Water Holdings group and as the UK holding company of the group's "legacy investments in foreign operations". The same accounts say it is also the sponsoring employer of the Thames Water Asia/Pacific Superannuation Plan, a defined benefit pension scheme that dates from the group's former Australian operations.

The register lists two corporate persons with significant control, each holding more than 25% but not more than 50% of the shares: Thames Water Limited and Thames Water International Services Holdings Limited. The accounts name Thames Water Limited as the company's direct parent.

At 30 September 2024 the company had net liabilities of £207.6 million, according to those accounts. They record £208.1 million owed to Thames Water Limited and state that all of the company's borrowings were to other companies in the group.

What a creditors' voluntary liquidation is

A company can be wound up voluntarily in one of two ways under the Insolvency Act 1986. If its directors make a statutory declaration that it can pay its debts in full within a period of no more than 12 months, the winding-up is a members' voluntary liquidation. If no such declaration is made, it is a creditors' voluntary liquidation, and the company's creditors have a say in who acts as liquidator.

The notice to creditors asks anyone with a claim against Thames Water Overseas to send the joint liquidators full particulars by 7 December 2026.

Thames Water Utilities is not named

The notices name only Thames Water Overseas Limited. None of them relates to Thames Water Utilities Limited, the separate group company that the Thames Water Overseas accounts describe as supplying water and wastewater services to customers in London, the Thames Valley and the surrounding area.

What this means for fleets

On the company's own filings, very little. The accounts for the 18 months to 30 September 2024 state that it had no employees in that period or the year before. Its income statement shows no income, only administrative costs of £167,000, made up of legal and professional fees and fees and licences. Its one subsidiary, Thames Water Asia Pte Limited, is registered in Singapore and described as legacy operations, and the investment in it was carried at nil at 30 September 2024.

Neither the notices nor the accounts mention vehicles, depots or field operations. The accounts say the group's water and wastewater services are delivered through Thames Water Utilities Limited, which the notices do not name.

The notice to creditors covers claims against Thames Water Overseas Limited only. Leasing companies, fleet suppliers and contractors that work with Thames Water can check which group company their contract is with. If it is not Thames Water Overseas Limited, the notice does not ask them to do anything.