--- title: "Macquarie and Southern Water, 2021–2025" language: en canonical: https://dossiertwist.com/dossiers/southern-water-services-limited/macquarie-2021-2025/ as_of: 2026-10-17 keywords: ["Southern Water Services Limited","Southern Water","02366670","water and wastewater company","South East England","Greensands Holdings","Macquarie Asset Management","Macquarie Super Core Infrastructure Fund","Asterion Industrial Partners","Sandstone Water Holdings","Ofwat","Environment Agency","Drinking Water Inspectorate","sewage discharges","2025 recapitalisation","SWS Scheme","Greensands (UK) Limited administration","ownership history","board of directors","AMP8 frameworks"] --- # Macquarie and Southern Water, 2021–2025 **Question.** How did Macquarie gain control of Southern Water, and what do the records say about who controls it? **Answer.** In September 2021 Macquarie Super Core Infrastructure Fund SCSp (MSCIF), managed by Macquarie Asset Management, bought 62.24% of Greensands Holdings Limited, then Southern Water's ultimate parent, through MSCIF Wight Bidco Limited and put about £1.1 billion of new equity into the group; Ofwat puts MAM-managed funds' investment at more than £1.6 billion by 2023. Ofwat named MSCIF, acting by its general partner, and Macquarie Asset Management Europe as the Ultimate Controllers in 2022. By 31 March 2025 MAM-managed funds held 87% of the group. Ownership, register entries, licence designations and group percentages measure different things and are kept apart below. ## The 2021 acquisition - Analysis: On 9 August 2021, Ofwat records, Southern Water announced that a fund managed by Macquarie Asset Management (MAM) had agreed to buy a majority stake in Greensands Holdings Limited, the group's ultimate parent. SWS Holdings Limited's accounts for 2021–22 date the purchase to 8 September 2021: until then Greensands Holdings had been owned by a consortium with no controlling party; that day MSCIF Wight Bidco Limited, a Macquarie group company, acquired 62.24% of it under an agreement with the existing shareholders, investing over £1 billion of equity. The accounts name Wight Bidco as the intermediate holding company and Macquarie Asset Management as the ultimate parent and controlling party. [src-009] [src-089] - Analysis: Ofwat describes the money put in at completion as about £1.073 billion of new equity from Macquarie Super Core Infrastructure Fund SCSp (MSCIF), of which about £530 million went into Southern Water as new equity and the rest strengthened other Greensands companies; from that date, Ofwat says, MSCIF had legal control over Greensands and therefore Southern Water. Southern Water's annual report for 2025–26 describes the same transaction as a £1.1 billion investment by MAM-managed funds, used to repay £476.0 million of external debt and to inject £529.9 million into Southern Water Services through the settlement of an inter-company loan and new equity, and records a second injection of £550 million in October 2023. Ofwat's September 2026 consultation puts the investment of MAM-managed funds in the group between 2021 and 2023 at more than £1.6 billion. [src-009] [src-059] [src-020] - Analysis: Ofwat's November 2022 conclusions give the owners of Southern Water after completion, as of September 2021, as MSCIF with 62%, funds managed by JP Morgan Asset Management with 15%, funds managed by UBS Asset Management and Hermes Infrastructure funds with 8% each, and minority owners with 7%. [src-009] ## The fund, its manager and its co-investors - Analysis: In November 2021, after completion, MSCIF syndicated part of its interest by selling part of its indirect shareholding in Wight Ventures S.à r.l. to funds managed by AMF Pensionförsäkring AB (11.45% of Wight Ventures), MR Ergo (6.97%) and Retail Employees Superannuation Pty Limited as trustee for the Retail Employees Superannuation Trust (13.28%). Ofwat records that MSCIF kept full control over Wight Ventures, with MSCIF Luxembourg GP S.à r.l. as general partner and Macquarie Asset Management Europe S.à r.l. (MAMES) managing the investment under the general partner's supervision. The percentages are interests in Wight Ventures, not direct holdings in Greensands or Southern Water. [src-009] - Analysis: MSCIF, its general partner and MSCIF Luxembourg C Holdings S.à r.l. appear among the controlled bodies corporate of Macquarie Group Limited (ACN 122 169 279, Sydney) in a Form 605 notice that the group made under Australia's Corporations Act on 7 November 2017 about shares in another company; the notice is a 2017 snapshot from before the Southern Water transaction. [src-027] - Analysis: A business-registry aggregator lists the Luxembourg entities at 20 Boulevard Royal, Luxembourg: MSCIF under register number B214195, with MSCIF Luxembourg GP S.à r.l. (B214067) as general partner, the GP also being general partner of other MSCIF partnerships; Macquarie Asset Management Europe S.à r.l. (B233546, formerly Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets Luxembourg S.à r.l.), with Charles G. H. Roemers, Mark Roland Phillips and Cindyrella Amistadi among its current managing directors; and MSCIF Luxembourg C Holdings S.à r.l. (B218732), a holding company whose current managing directors it gives as Viktor Schuh, Charles G. H. Roemers, John William Lee and Philip Hogan. The aggregator gives no appointment dates and says that its network views are incomplete and that it does not verify identities or the direction of links. [src-042] [src-051] [src-043] [src-033] ## Ofwat's Ultimate Controllers - Analysis: Ofwat consulted on the change of ownership from 3 August to 14 September 2022 and published its conclusions in November 2022. It noted that it has no formal power to approve or reject new owners of water companies and that it consulted because the Ultimate Controllers were complex to identify and because of its long-standing concerns about Southern Water's performance; the four responses came from individuals. It identified MSCIF, acting by its general partner, and MAMES as Southern Water's Ultimate Controllers — a licence term for anyone able, in Ofwat's reasonable determination, to control or materially influence the company or its holding companies. No individual investor in MSCIF needed to give an undertaking, Ofwat reasoned, because investors without day-to-day control of a fund leave that influence with the institution managing it, and the licence did not need to change. [src-009] ## What the registers show - Analysis: Companies House's register of people with significant control for MSCIF Wight Bidco Limited lists, from 22 June 2021, MSCIF Wight Midco Limited as holding 75% or more of its shares and votes, and Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (Europe) Limited as having significant influence or control without a shareholding. Wight Midco's own register names no shareholder and lists only the same Macquarie company, from 21 June 2021, with significant influence or control. Its own registrable controller, notified on 1 July 2020, is Macquarie Asset Management UK Holdings No.1 Limited; Macquarie Group Holdings (UK) No.2 Limited held the same position from 6 April 2016 to 25 August 2020. [src-044] [src-080] [src-081] - Analysis: Ofwat's September 2026 consultation describes the structure as of 31 March 2025: Greensands Holdings was still the ultimate parent, its majority shareholder was MSCIF Wight Bidco acting for infrastructure funds managed by MAM, MAM-managed funds held 87% of the group and minority investors about 13%, including investors advised by UBS Asset Management and Hermes Infrastructure funds. The figures are a snapshot: Greensands Holdings ceased to be the parent on 4 July 2025. [src-020] [src-059] - Analysis: These records measure different things. Wight Bidco's 62.24% of Greensands Holdings (and, from 4 July 2025, Sandstone Bidco's ownership of the new top company, Greensands Junior Finance) is legal ownership. The registers record Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (Europe) Limited at Wight Bidco, Wight Midco and the three Sandstone companies only as having significant influence or control. The Ultimate Controller designation rests on the ability to influence the company, not on shares. Ofwat's 62% and 87% are shares of the group, and the co-investors' stakes are interests in Wight Ventures. The records do not show the shareholdings between Wight Ventures, Wight Midco and Wight Bidco. [src-089] [src-015] [src-009] [src-020] ## The Luxembourg Sandstone companies - Analysis: Two Luxembourg companies carry the Sandstone name. According to publications shown by the business-registry aggregator, Mscif SC 6 S.à r.l. was registered on 17 March 2022 (B265775) with €13,000 of capital held at registration by MSCIF Luxembourg C Holdings and was renamed Mscif Sandstone Holdings S.à r.l. on 6 June 2025; its managing directors have included Catherine Isabelle Harber and Charles Ghislain Hubert Roemers since 21 May 2025, Viktor Schuh since 13 March 2024 and William David George Price from 17 March 2022 to 17 June 2024. The aggregator says its data are generated automatically and may contain errors, and its free view does not show the current shareholder. MSCIF Sandstone Ventures S.à r.l. (B266315, formerly Mscif SC 9 and Mscif Luppiter Holdings), a holding company, is shown with Roemers, Harber and Schuh as current and Price and Mark Roland Phillips as former managing directors, without dates. [src-026] [src-025] - Analysis: The aggregator links the two companies through a publication of 10 April 2026 titled "Shareholding: Mscif Sandstone Ventures Sàrl" and a former link labelled "62.2%", without showing its direction or current size; reading it as a holding by Mscif Sandstone Holdings in Sandstone Ventures depends on the page layout, and no primary Luxembourg register extract was retained. The William David George Price listed there is probably the Macquarie executive who joined Southern Water's board in September 2021 and became a director of Sandstone Water Holdings, the UK company owned by MSCIF Sandstone Ventures, on 20 December 2025: the name is the same and the roles match, but the aggregator gives no identifier. [src-026] [src-025] [src-059] [src-022] ## Sources - [src-009] Ofwat: Southern Water: Conclusions on Change of Control (November 2022), Ofwat, 2022-11 - [src-089] Company statement source · src-089 - [src-059] Company statement source · src-059 - [src-020] Ofwat consultation on the change of ownership for Southern Water Services Limited (September 2026), Ofwat, 2026-09 - [src-027] Company statement source · src-027 - [src-042] Corporate registry source · src-042 - [src-051] Corporate registry source · src-051 - [src-043] Corporate registry source · src-043 - [src-033] Corporate registry source · src-033 - [src-044] Companies House register of persons with significant control: MSCIF Wight Bidco Limited (13469990), Companies House - [src-080] Companies House register of persons with significant control: MSCIF Wight Midco Limited (13468085), Companies House - [src-081] Companies House register of persons with significant control: Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (Europe) Limited (03976881), Companies House - [src-015] Companies House register of persons with significant control: Greensands Junior Finance Limited (06335757), Companies House - [src-026] Corporate registry source · src-026 - [src-025] Corporate registry source · src-025 - [src-022] Companies House filing history: Sandstone Water Holdings Limited (16482350), Companies House