TalkTalk agrees to £1.1bn takeover

Investment company Toscafund and private equity firm Penta to buy broadband provider for 97p per share

The telecoms firm has said it has agreed a £1.1bn takeover by investment company Toscafund and private equity firm Penta (PA)

Telecoms firm TalkTalk has agreed a £1.1bn takeover by investment company Toscafund and private equity firm Penta, more than two months after the firm first said it was in discussions over the sale.

The offer represents a 16.4 per cent premium on TalkTalk’s closing price on 7 October, the broadband provider said, shortly before the parties initiated talks over the deal.

Toscafund and Penta hailed the company’s “resilient” trading performance in 2020 despite disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Toscafund is already TalkTalk’s second largest investor and held an almost 30 per cent stake in the company.

Sir Charles Dunstone, chairman of TalkTalk, said in a statement: “Being a private company would allow us to accelerate adoption and focus on our role as the affordable provider of fibre for businesses and consumers nationwide.

“The telecoms industry is going through a fundamental reset and we are keen to play our part in it.”

TalkTalk is the UK’s fourth largest internet company, serving 4.2m customers. According to the Financial Times, Toscafund had made an informal offer last year of 135p per share to buy out the firm but it was rejected.

The current offer stands at a lower 97p per share, but the company’s independent directors recommended that it be accepted on the basis that TalkTalk requires substantial investment to grow.

Ian West, senior non-executive director at the firm, said: “The Independent TalkTalk Directors have taken into account the risks associated in achieving TalkTalk’s strategic ambitions and the wide support that ToscaFund would provide in this regard.”

He added that the directors, who are advised by Barclays and Deutsche Bank, believe the terms of the cash offer are “fair and reasonable” and “unanimously” recommend that shareholders accept the deal.

TalkTalk also told investors it delivered a “robust” performance throughout the six months to September, boosted by a jump in data usage which increased by more than 40 per cent since the start of the pandemic.

It said headline earnings dropped by 12.9 per cent to £122m after it was hit by lower revenues for the period.

The telecoms company also made a separate announcement revealing that chief finance officer Kate Ferry is to step down from the business after three and a half years.

She will be replaced in the role by Phil Eayres, who has worked at TalkTalk for six years, most recently as an independent strategic adviser leading the development and disposal of its FibreNation arm.