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The Octopus Inheritance Tax Service (OITS), which is a discretionary investment service managed by Octopus Investments, has revealed that they’re going to split out their fibre broadband assets (i.e. those held by Fern Trading – Vorboss and AllPoints Fibre Network) from other investments. The move comes shortly after Octopus backed away from a deal to acquire PXC from TalkTalk.
The CEO of Octopus Investments, Erin Platts, told the Telegraph (paywall) that she wanted to be “honest about what hasn’t worked … and put OITS on a stronger footing for the future“, which is a reference to their recent poor performance and the questions that rose after OITS froze withdrawals while talks over a possible c.£200m deal with broadband group TalkTalk were ongoing.
At this point it’s already well known that Fern Trading’s fibre business has been struggling (APFN has burnt a lot of money on their own fibre assets), albeit not unlike plenty of other alternative network operators we could mention – due in part to wider market strains (competition, high interest rates and rising build costs).