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The merger of Bristol Water with South West Water’s parent company Pennon has completed with the transfer of Bristol’s business to South West.
The merger was announced in July 2021 when Pennon acquired the water only company. In August last year, the proposed integration of the businesses began.
Bristol Water plc will remain as a legal entity within the Pennon Group.
Bristol chief executive Mel Karam will step down from the business, after staying in an advisory role during the merger. Karam joined Bristol in 2017 and has steered the organisation through PR19 and subsequent appeal against Ofwat’s final determination.
Directors Gill Rider, Jon Butterworth, Claire Ighordaro, Iain Evans, Neil Cooper, Dorothy Burwell, Loraine Woodhouse have resigned with immediate effect but all remain on the Pennon Group board as non-executives.
The deal has taken 18 months to complete, partly because it needed clearance from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which raised concerns the proposed licence modifications might interfere with Ofwat’s regulation. This was approved for the companies to be unified under a single licence.
Pennon completed the acquisition after selling Viridor, its waste management business, in 2020 for £4.2 billion. The company has said it remains open to acquisition opportunities in the UK water sector.
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