TalkTalk shares up 16pc as telco considers £1.1bn takeover bid

Any takeover needs the approval of TalkTalk founder and biggest shareholder Charles Dunstone

TalkTalk has agreed to discuss a potential £1.1 billion takeover bid from investment firm Toscafund.

Shares in the telecoms firm has risen 16 per cent since TalkTalk announced the bid earlier this morning (October 8).

London-based Toscafund is TalkTalk’s second largest shareholder and will need to approval from Charles Dunstone for the go ahead.

Dunstone is the founder and largest shareholder in TalkTalk and currently occupies a 30 per cent stake.

The offer is worth 97-pence a share and including debt the deal could be worth £2 billion.

But it’s considerably less than the 135p-per-share offer that Toscafund tabled last year that was reportedly turned down.

Difficult times

TalkTalk is currently the UK’s fourth biggest broadband company with over four million customers.

However, the telco has endured a difficult few years, with poor performances in customer feedback survey’s by Ofcom.

The provider suffered a severe cyber-attack in 2015 that saw the company fined a record £400,000 for the major hack.

The hack saw personal data stolen from more than 150,000 customers, with email addresses and bank details compromised.