A residential energy services provider backed by leading City investors has secured a £50m funding boost from one of the world’s biggest pension funds.

Sky News understands that Hometree, which counts Legal & General (L&G) among its investors, will this week announce that it has agreed a mezzanine debt facility with a subsidiary of Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB).

The new debt facility will add to a £250m loan from Barclays that Hometree secured earlier this year, and will be used to finance up to 35,000 residential solar panel systems, batteries and heat pumps.

News of Hometree’s expanded financing capacity comes as a fresh rise in the household energy price cap takes effect.

Average annual energy bills will increase by £149 following the revision to the cap.

“We’re delighted that CPP Investments has joined us in our mission to help homeowners decarbonise their homes by installing solar panels and heat pumps,” said Rory Duff, managing director of Hometree Finance,

“The energy transition will not happen without appropriate finance since very few people have the thousands of pounds needed for the upfront costs.”

Hometree, which was launched in 2016 by Simon Phelan, has set a target of decarbonising more than 1m homes by the end of the decade.

It has said it wants to build Europe’s leading residential energy services business, combining hardware installation, financing, repairs and ongoing maintenance.

The company has raised tens of millions of pounds in equity from investors including L&G, 2150 and Energy Impact Partners.

A trio of buyout firms have been shortlisted to buy a stake in the UK operations of Grant Thornton, one of Britain’s six biggest accountancy firms.

Sky News has learnt that Cinven, EQT and New Mountain Capital – the backer of Grant Thornton’s US business – have made the cut in a process that could value the UK firm at more than £1.5bn.

Other contenders, including Permira and Carlyle are said to no longer be in contention, although insiders cautioned that the list was subject to change.

Grant Thornton has around 200 UK equity partners, who will have a say on the deal.

The firm has improved its financial performance following a turbulent period for its leadership, with a £1.3m fine being imposed for “serious failings” in 2022 in relation to its audit of Sports Direct, the sportswear empire founded by Mike Ashley and now known as Frasers Group.

It was also handed a £2.3m penalty the year before for demonstrating a “serious lack of competence” in relation to its work on Patisserie Holdings, the owner of the collapsed cafe chain Patisserie Valerie.

Since then, Grant Thornton has slashed the number of so-called public interest entity (PIEs) audit clients, a category which includes banks, insurers and other companies deemed to be of particular importance.

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A spokesperson for Grant Thornton UK LLP said: “As all businesses do, we continually evaluate the external business and economic landscape and explore various avenues that will drive growth for our firm.

“This enables us to make informed decisions about what’s best for our people, our clients, and our firm.

“No decisions have been made and, whilst we are considering our options, we will not be commenting further.”

Cinven, EQT and Permira declined to comment.

Scrutiny of Thames Water, the crisis-hit utility, will intensify this week when the industry regulator appoints LEK Consulting as an independent monitor of the company.

Scrutiny of Thames Water, the crisis-hit utility, will intensify this week when the industry regulator appoints LEK Consulting as an independent monitor of the company.

Sky News has learnt that Ofwat is expected to announce LEK’s appointment within days.

The move was triggered in August when Thames Water lost two investment grade credit ratings, which compromised one of the conditions it must fulfil in order to maintain its operating licence.

The ratings downgrades were triggered by growing expectations that the company will need to be nationalised in the coming months amid a battle to raise new capital from private investors.

Last week, Sky News revealed that lenders holding £12bn of Thames Water’s debt had held face-to-face talks with Ofwat to pitch a rescue deal that they believe would avert its nationalisation.

The syndicate is racing to find a solution that would allow a restructuring that would incorporate a massive debt-for-equity swap and see fresh equity injected into the crisis-hit utility, which serves about 15m customers in London and the south-east.

A deal needs to be agreed by the middle of November because Ofwat is due to sign off its final regulatory determination for the company’s business plan at a board meeting in the second half of the month.

Creditors argue that Ofwat needs to demonstrate flexibility in its consideration of Thames Water’s business plan in order to make the company investible.

Further details of the creditor group’s proposals are unclear, although flexibility in relation to customer bill increases will inevitably be a component.

Thames Water is also facing a litany of regulatory fines over its poor customer service performance and dire record on sewage and water leaks.

Plans for an emergency liquidity facility of more than £1bn are also being drawn up, although they are yet to be finalised.

That finalising would buy Thames Water several months more to finalise a rescue plan.

In August, David Black, Ofwat’s chief executive, said: “We are clear that Thames Water needs to remedy its licence breach, turnaround its operational performance and secure backing from investors to restore its loss of investment grade credit rating.

“These enforceable commitments will include our putting an independent Monitor into the business, to report back to us on what is happening to drive meaningful change in performance, and to ensure appropriate expertise is added to their board.

“We will continue to monitor progress very closely and will not hesitate to take any further action if necessary.”

Bankers at Rothschild have been trying to drum up investment in new Thames Water stock in recent months, but with little success amid a lack of visibility about the company’s survival prospects.

Sky News reported last month that Carlyle, the American investment giant, has become the latest global fund to weigh an investment in Thames Water.

Its future remains so shrouded in uncertainty because the industry watchdog, Ofwat, has rejected the company’s initial spending plans for the next five-year regulatory period.

If new investment into Thames Water is not forthcoming before it runs out of cash, the government will have little choice but to sanction the temporary nationalisation of the company.

This would be done through a Special Administration Regime (SAR), a procedure tested only once before when Bulb Energy collapsed in 2021.

As part of its contingency planning for implementing a far-reaching restructuring, Thames Water has booked court dates in November to progress a rescue deal.

Shareholders have long since written off their investment in the company and will not play a role in any rescue deal.

Ofwat and Thames Water declined to comment.