Thames Water suffered a major setback in its fight to avoid nationalisation on Tuesday as it said U.S. private equity firm KKR had pulled out of a multi-billion pound rescue plan. Britain's biggest water supplier has been pushed to the edge by its 18 billion pound ($24.

British utility Thames Water says a U.S. investment firm has dropped a rescue bid for the debt-burdened company

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.