A Hong Kong company has submitted an initial 7-billion pounds ($8.8 billion) bid for a majority stake in Thames Water, a heavily indebted UK water supplier, the Financial Times said Friday. CK Infrastructure, part of the CK Hutchison group, put forward the non-binding offer earlier this month, but expects the utility’s bondholders to take significant writedowns, according to two people close to the issue.

The news came after a UK court on Tuesday approved a 3 billion pound emergency loan for Thames Water, offering it a lifeline as it buckles under a mountain of debt.

The loan provides a short-term solution to keeping the company — faced with debts of 16 billion pounds — afloat while it finds the necessary funding to stave off a costly public bailout.

Thames Water did not comment on the FT report when asked by AFP.

If the company that serves 16 million customers, or a quarter of the UK’s population, fails to find the funding, it will have to call on the state to bail it out. Such a rescue would be a blow to the government in the face of tight public finances.

Thames Water — owned by a consortium of shareholders including Canada’s Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System and the British Universities Superannuation Scheme — has recently attracted interest from private buyers.

Infrastructure investor Covalis Capital proposed an upfront buyout offer of 1 billion pounds, with the potential to bring in French utility giant Suez.

According to the Financial Times, Thames Water has also received other offers including a 4 billion pounds bid from American investment fund KKR.

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