TalkTalk buys half-a-million Shell Energy customers in deal with Octopus
TalkTalk has bought almost 500,000 Shell Energy customers in a deal with Octopus Energy.
The Salford-headquartered telecoms provider will transfer around 480,000 customers over the course of 2024.
Octopus completed the purchase of Shell Energy Retail UK and Germany at the start of December last year, after the deal was first announced in September.
Shell decided to exit both the UK energy and telecoms supply business; Shell Energy broadband held approximately a 2.1 per cent market share in June 2023.
News that a deal between TalkTalk and Octopus was close to being agreed was first reported in December 2023.
A TalkTalk statement said: “Further to reports, TalkTalk confirms that a vehicle controlled by TalkTalk’s major shareholders has acquired Shell Energy’s UK broadband customer base from Octopus Energy.
“Shell Energy Broadband has been a longstanding wholesale customer of TalkTalk, with services offered through the company’s unique national network platform, and that relationship will now continue.”
The deal comes after Octopus Energy delivered its first annual profit since launching in 2015 and was confirmed as the largest electricity and second largest gas supplier in the country.
TalkTalk is currently going through a reorganisation which will see itself split into three divisions: TalkTalk Consumer, TalkTalk Business Direct and the wholesale business.
The demerger is expected to be formally completed by March 1.