Tristia Harrison, who has served as TalkTalk Group CEO since 2017 will chair a newly established oversight board up until March 1st 2024. Harrison’s role will be to oversee the leadership of the three new businesses that TalkTalk will demerge into.
After this time she will move into a role as non-executive director of the B2B wholesale platform business.
In addition to the wholesale platform, TalkTalk will launch TalkTalk Consumer, to focus on its 2.4million residential broadband customers and TalkTalk Business Direct, which serves the connectivity needs of approximately 90,000 small businesses.
The B2B Wholesale Platform was described by TalkTalk as the leading and fastest growing provider of wholesale telecom services in the UK.
Tom O’Hagan, founder of Virtual1 and current MD of TalkTalk Business Wholesale, will be CEO of the Wholesale Platform.
Adam Dunlop, the former Managing Director of iD Mobile and current MD of TalkTalk Consumer and Supply & Partnerships, will be CEO of TalkTalk Consumer.
Ruth Kennedy will continue as managing director of TalkTalk Business Direct.
TalkTalk said the demerger will allow each company to focus on meeting the needs of their distinctive customer bases, eliminate operational complexity, and support balance sheet refinancing and investment on a standalone basis.
TalkTalk has been looking for a solution for its £1.1 billion of debt which matures in either November 2024 (£330 million) or February 2025 (£685million).
Prior to the demerger plans, there had been speculation that a £3 billion takeover bid from VM02 was in the works, although a deal never materialised.
The company first began shaking up its management in preparation for a solution in March of this year, when M&A specialist James Smtih was hired as CFO.
As reported by Capacity earlier this year, a sales process for the businesses B2B division, which was also run by Dunlop prior to the latest shakeup, is underway.
Analysts have suggested that the unit could be worth between £150 and £200 million.
