Nocturnal 
BT Group is reportedly being asked to tear up payments worth as much as £300m as part of a last-ditch rescue deal for struggling broadband provider TalkTalk.
According to Sky News, private equity firm Epiris, which wants to buy TalkTalk’s wholesale arm, has approached BT seeking relief from the payments in order to get a rescue deal over the line. One Sky News report put the figure being sought at “over £100m”, while a later report from the same outlet said BT was being asked to forgo closer to £300m. The exact scale of the waiver being discussed is therefore unclear, and Nocturnal News has not been able to independently verify which figure is accurate.
TalkTalk is one of Britain’s biggest broadband providers, and the talks are said to have entered their “final stages”, according to Sky News. The story has also been trending in UK Google searches, with more than 5,000 people searching for “talk talk” on Monday.
Why it matters
TalkTalk’s wholesale arm relies on payments and infrastructure arrangements linked to BT, which operates much of the UK’s broadband network through Openreach. Any waiver on payments owed to BT would effectively see Britain’s biggest telecoms company take a financial hit to help secure the future of one of its rivals.
For TalkTalk, a deal with Epiris would be aimed at stabilising a company that has been described as “struggling” and is the subject of ongoing rescue negotiations. For millions of TalkTalk customers, the outcome of these talks could have a bearing on the company’s long-term stability, though no changes to services have been reported at this stage.
For BT, agreeing to waive a significant chunk of money it is owed would not be a decision taken lightly, given the sums involved run into the hundreds of millions of pounds on one estimate. It underlines just how critical BT’s cooperation is seen as being to any rescue package going ahead.
What happens next
As it stands, talks between the parties are said to be in their final stages, but no agreement has yet been confirmed. It remains unclear exactly how much BT will ultimately be asked to give up, whether it will agree to any waiver at all, or when a final decision might be announced.
Nocturnal News will update this story as more details emerge from BT, TalkTalk or Epiris.
