Talktalk boss steps down as telecoms company braces for break-up

TALKTALK chief executive Tristia Harrison is stepping down after six years in the role as the troubled telecoms company braces for a break-up.

Ms Harrison, who took over the top job in 2017, will leave her position as chief executive early next year amid a plan to split the business into three. She will lead a new transition board that will oversee the process of carving Talktalk into separate consumer, business and wholesale divisions.

The break-up is expected to be completed by March, when Ms Harrison will take up a seat on the board of the wholesale unit – dubbed Platform X. Her departure marks a turbulent period for Talktalk, which was spun off from Carphone Warehouse by founder Sir Charles Dunstone in 2010.

The company is struggling under a £1.1bn debt pile and its bond yields have surged to distressed levels as a costly refinancing looms early next year. Talktalk has already put its business-to-business division up for sale in an effort to raise more capital. Analysts believe the sale could raise £150m.

However, the process suffered a setback after talks with Sky broke down. Daisy Group, a B2B provider founded by entrepreneur Matthew Riley, is now thought to be the frontrunner.

Talktalk is racing to complete the sale by the end of the year, while it may explore a similar deal or investment for its consumer division and sell a stake in the wholesale platform. Talktalk is expected to make around 50 redundancies as a result of the break-up.

James Ratzer, an analyst at New Street, said he was sceptical about the value of the wholesale platform, which sells access to networks including BT’S Openreach and Cityfibre. He said: “The business is still in a difficult place.”