Water firm agrees to £2.4bn takeover

Shareholders in Northumbrian, which supplies 2.6 million people in the North East and 1.8 million through Essex & Suffolk Water, will receive 465p per share from a consortium of companies headed by Cheung Kong Infrastructure (CKI), the firm controlled by Asian billionaire Li Ka-shing.

CKI already has extensive utility assets in the UK including electricity distributor UK Power Networks, gas distributor Northern Gas Networks and stakes in Southern Water and generator Seabank Power.

The Hong Kong company has agreed to sell Cambridge Water to HSBC as part of the deal to avoid competition issues.

Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, which owns nearly 27 per cent of Northumbrian, has agreed to accept the takeover offer.