Biggest ever taxpayer deal as JT's £500m purchase of Manx Telecom completes - Jersey Evening Post
by Julien Morel · Jersey Evening PostPosted inNews
Biggest ever taxpayer deal as JT’s £500m purchase of Manx Telecom completes
by Julien Morel 19 May 202619 May 2026
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THE biggest transaction ever undertaken by a Jersey taxpayer-owned business has been completed – with JT’s private-equity backed £500m purchase of Manx Telecom formally going ahead after receiving all regulatory approvals.
On Friday, all contracts were signs and hands shaken – beginning a new era for JT, which can trace its history back to the first telephone exchange opening in Jersey in 1888.
The deal is being backed by a division of Jersey-based CVC Capital Partners, who will co-own the Isle of Man business.
JT Group chief executive officer Daragh McDermott said: “We are delighted to complete this acquisition and formally bring two trusted telcos together.
“Working alongside our strategic partner CVC DIF, we now have the scale, capability and investment strength to accelerate next‑generation network upgrades across Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Together, we will continue building resilient, secure and future‑ready digital infrastructure for our islands.”
He added: “This acquisition is all part of a significant turnaround at JT. The last two years have been all about stabilising the business and building our network infrastructure, transforming JT in terms of our size, and then achieving the scale to start growing again.
“Next year, we will see a bigger and more profitable JT.”
Mr McDermott continued: “JT remains wholly owned by the Government of Jersey and we never forget that: the whole point of incorporation in 2003 – and I joined JT to project manage that – was to separate the business from government and charge it to ‘go and grow’.
“We now have a fantastic network to achieve that; we are right on plan.”
The completion of the deal comes not long after JT’s published its results for 2025, which Mr McDermott described as a “defining year” for the publicly owned utility, which currently employs 430 people.
In the report, JT’s Chief Financial Officer Hélène Narcy said that the firm’s financial performance “remains challenging, with limited growth across a highly competitive industry.”
JT revenue last year was £140.3m, slightly down from 2024’s £142.8m. Gross profit was slightly up to £88.1m; however, the business made an operating loss of £1m, and post-tax profit fell from £7m in 2024 to £1.1m last year.
JT said that this fall was primarily due to one-off costs incurred by the Manx Telecom purchase. It added that the operating loss was down to acquisition costs, increased costs and investments associated with setting up and running JT’s new Ericsson-based mobile network.
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