BT Business is retaining a presence in its mission to provide “secure multi-cloud connectivity to large organisations globally and in Ireland”
BT Group is to sell BT Communications Ireland Ltd (BTCIL) to Ireland’s Speed Fibre Group. The BT business provides wholesale and enterprise services to more than 400 customers and will sell its 3,400km fibre network and transfer the network support teams to the new owner.
Speed Fibre Group is a holding company, part of the UK-listed infrastructure investor Cordiant Digital Infrastructure which also owns Enet. Enet claims to be the largest wholesale network provider in Ireland and also owns retailer Magnet+.
The agreement does not cover BTCIL’s multinationals customers, large Irish organisations, or its emergency call handling service and its associated teams. BTCIL agreed to sell its Irish data centres to Equinix in December.
BT and Speed Fibre have also forged a long-term agreement to source connectivity for their respective customers from one another.
The enterprise value of the deal will be €22 million. The transaction is subject to the usual approvals but the parties say they expect it to close in 2025.
The transaction is in line with Allison Kirkby’s strategy. She is BT Group’s CEO and is keen to retrench and concentrate on the UK business rather than overseas units. However, BT started selling of its international units long before Kirkby took the helm, as part of the fallout from an Italian accounting scandal almost 10 years ago.
The great global sell-off
Last week BT announced that Jon James, formerly CEO of the Danish telco services company, will take over the running of BT Business in March, leaving the former incumbent, Bas Burger free to focus on strategically disposing on certain parts of his former BT Global empire.
Burger had this to say. “Today’s announcement is another key milestone in focusing our international business on what it does best: providing secure multi-cloud connectivity to large organisations globally and in Ireland.”
What will go next?