Speeches by Gardiner.

“But you were going to appeal it, and you told me that you had put the appeal on hold in order to challenge that determination by Ofwat.”

“Let us move on to those understandings. How far behind are you on the investment programme on AMP7, PR19?”

“How far behind are you on not just AMP7, but also on WINEP7 programmes?”

“When KKR was bidding, because of its size—£638 billion—it boasted that it could, “Bully the Treasury into stopping Ofwat and the EA from imposing the penalties and fines.” Is that why you chose them as your preferred bidder?”

“You will recognise that that was a claim that they did make.”

“Indeed.”

“You are paying for it.”

“You are paying for all the work that KKR wants. Let us not try to bluff.”

“Let us get back to the point that the Chair and I were in the process of making, and that is that you chose to eliminate those others from the bid. In response to the Chair, what you said was that there came a point when you had to do this, it was the right thing to do, and those bids fell away. Yet we have heard from …”

“The Class A bondholders argued that there was insufficient time to implement an alternative restructuring plan, if the A plan could not be implemented. The Court of Appeal described the enormous time pressure of the case as unacceptable, and requests to expedite the appeal proceedings as, “Frankly, ridiculous”. To what…”

“Do you know the one I am referring to?”

“Just before we do, Mr Weston, you said that you had seen no evidence that you could have sourced additional funding on better terms from anywhere else. I believe you received an offer in early September from one of the groups that eventually put a bid in of £1 billion, which was on better terms, was it not?”

“Why did you not say that to my colleague?”

“Why have you said that the whole board would step down? Because when you were answering my colleague, you said that you could not give an assurance that they would stay in place, but you did not say, “I can give you an assurance that they will not be in place over the next five years because we have already said that w…”

“Why was it?”

“Investors would normally want to see the board structure as well as the investment structure of the company, but you have said that the entire board will step down as soon as the new investment goes in. Is that because the Court of Appeal removed immunity from Thames directors against any claims a future special admini…”

“But they did, did they not?”

“So you did not choose KKR because it could bully the Treasury. Did you choose KKR because it committed to giving the senior debtholders less of a haircut?”

“Oh no, not another explanation. Come on. Just answer it.”

“That is what you denied before when I asked you about KKR saying that they could bully the Treasury into bullying Ofwat.”