KKR Quit Thames Bid After It Saw Little Upside to a Rescue (1)

KKR & Co. withdrew its bid to invest £4 billion ($5.4 billion) in Thames Water when the US infrastructure giant realized there was little upside to a deal, according to people familiar with the deliberations.

KKR quit its offer Tuesday as the crisis engulfing the UK utility made a profitable overhaul extremely challenging, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing confidential information. Expectations for improving the asset base in a way that protected the business, and for raising the performance of the company, were realistically hard to meet, they said.

The alternative asset manager made its proposal to ...