OMERS Infrastructure Management Inc. has today announced the purchase of an additional 4% interest in Kemble Water Holdings Ltd, the ultimate holding company of Thames Water Utilities Ltd.

The transaction by the infrastructure investment manager of OMERS, the defined benefit pension plan for municipal employees in Ontario, Canada, is expected to close later in the year. OMERS is one of Canada's largest defined benefit pension funds with net assets of more than C$85 billion.

Following completion of the transaction, OMERS Infrastructure will increase its overall interest in Thames Water to ~32%.

OMERS Infrastructure, which changed its name from Borealis Infrastructure in August, made its first investment in Thames in March last year in a consortium with Wren House Infrastructure Management Ltd, the infrastructure investing arm of the Kuwait Investment Authority. The consortium acquired a 26% stake in Kemble from Macquarie Infrastructure - financial details of the initial transaction were not disclosed at the time.

As Borealis Infrastructure, it then purchased an additional 5.5% interest in Kemble from AMP Capital in July 2017.

In November 2017 OMERS Infrastructure then purchased a further 4.36% interest in Kemble from Hermes Investment Management.