The full extent of TalkTalk’s financial woes have been revealed for the first time amid sky-rocketing losses and huge job losses as customers move to other broadband providers.
New accounts for the Salford-headquartered group filed with Companies House have revealed its pre-tax losses surged from £153m to £465m in the year to 28 February, 2025.
They also confirm TalkTalk lost around 420,000 broadband customers in the year, a figure which was widely reported in May citing the unpublished accounts.
The group said the reduction was predominantly on the TalkTalk side of the business (277,000) due to its devision to “refocus our acquisition strategy and deliberately retrench from unprofitable segments and customers”.
The results also show that TalkTalk’s revenue declined in the year from £1.51bn to £1.41bn.
The company added that its monthly churn increased year on year from 1.9 per cent to 2 per cent and that, along with fewer customers and the “on-going market-wide decline in voice”, led to its revenue falling.
The accounts have also confirmed that the number of people employed by the group in the financial year fell from 2,065 to 1,570.
TalkTalk was founded by Sir Charles Dunstone and is the UK’s fourth-largest telecoms group.
TalkTalk up against ‘fierce competition’
A statement signed off by the board said: “FY25 results reflect significant change across our key business metrics of EBITDA [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation], customer base, churn and ARPU [average revenue per user].
“The markets in which our businesses operate have remained fiercely competitive.
“As a value challenger brand, we have continued to provide a value-based proposition to both wholesale and consumer customers and have remained focused on product reliability and improving customer service.”
TalkTalk added that its ARPU declined from £25.74 to £25.46 “due to contractural price rises offset by the reduction in usage and boosts.”
BT ‘considering’ takeover approach
The results come after it was reported in June that BT was considering a potential takeover of TalkTalk.
A few weeks before, it emerged that TalkTalk had fallen behind on payments to suppliers including Openreach and CityFibre.
Last month the group announced it had secured an extra £100m from one of its current backers, Ares Management.
Last year, Sir Charles Dunstone and other shareholders injected an extra £235m into TalkTalk to shore up its finances.
The group was taken private by London-based investment firm Toscafund in a £1.1bn leveraged buyout in 2021.
The move added £527m of debt to TalkTalk’s balance sheet which now stands at £1.2bn.