News
TalkTalk’s Business Direct unit serves around 80,000 corporate customers and could carry a price tag of around £150 million
According to reports, Sky Business is the latest company to have expressed an interest in acquiring TalkTalk’s B2B arm, TT Business Direct Limited.
Business Direct currently serves around 80,000 corporate customers, making them an attractive acquisition target for Sky Business, which has been pushing to grow its own enterprise customer base for some time now.
The sale of TalkTalk’s B2B unit comes as a result of mounting debt pressures, with reports earlier this month hinting that TalkTalk is in an attempt to balance its books.
The firm’s total debt currently stands at over £1.1 billion, with the deadlines on those debts fast approaching: £350 million matures next November and a further £685 million matures in February 2025.
The B2B unit is likely to be the first on the chopping block, with the consumer and wholesale units likely to follow.
TalkTalk executives said recently that the business would focus on disposals, noting that the “individual parts [of the business] are worth more than the whole”.
Reports suggest TalkTalk has hired merger and acquisition experts Houlihan Lokey to handle the sale.
Sky Business will join a growing number of interested parties in purchasing the B2B unit, most notably including British firm Daisy Group.
Daisy Group had tried to purchase the unit for £175 million back in 2018 but talks ended without an agreement.
More recently, TalkTalk was approached by Virgin Media O2 regarding a potential takeover for around £3 billion, but this was later scrapped due to market and regulatory uncertainties.
How would the breakup of TalkTalk impact the UK telecoms market? Join the operators in discussion at this year’s live Connected Britain conference
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