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The heavily indebted UK broadband focused TalkTalk Group has reportedly received bids for its wholesale arm, PlatformX Communications (PXC), which is said to value the company in the “hundreds of millions of pounds“. The interest is said to have come from Africa-focused Telecel, as well as others like private equity firm Epiris, which has teamed up with PXC executive chairman Tom O’Hagan.
In case the name Tom O’Hagan seems familiar then that’s because he recently helped acquire business provider Entanet from full fibre operator CityFibre (here) and appears to have big plans for the UK business connectivity market. Suffice to say that acquiring PXC, which TalkTalk has been trying to sell since they demerged their businesses (Talk Talk Consumer, PXC [Wholesale] and Talk Talk Business Direct), would make a lot of sense.
According to Bloomberg‘s sources, the deliberations are said to be ongoing and there’s currently no certainty about whether this will end in a transaction. The news follows shortly after other reports indicated that broadband and mobile operator Vodafone (VodafoneThree) had tabled a bid for TalkTalk’s consumer business (here), which is another pairing that would seem to be quite complementary.
At the time a spokesperson for VodafoneThree said they are currently “very happy with our organic strategy” for growing fixed broadband (they’re one of the fastest growing retail ISPs), but would “always keep a close eye on movements in the market and the sector“. TalkTalk itself has declined to comment on both reports, as is normal in such situations.
The TalkTalk Group has certainly had a rough few years and in September 2024 secured a crucial refinancing package worth around £400m (here and here), which saved it from the immediate risk of a default on its debts (extended debt maturities to September 2027). This was later followed up by a £120m funding deal to help tackle ongoing financial pressures (here).
Since then the provider has suffered more redundancies and also refreshed their consumer brand in order to deal with a shrinking broadband base (here), but there may yet be light at the end of what has become a long tunnel.