Waterland and Giacom plot £1bn carve-up of London-listed telecoms firm Gamma

The European buyout firm Waterland and one of Britain's best-known telecoms entrepreneurs are in talks about a carve-up of Gamma Communications, the London-listed telecoms provider.

Sky News has learnt that Waterland is planning to acquire Gamma and then sell a major chunk of it to Giacom, a telecoms services company chaired by Matthew Riley and backed by Inflexion, another private equity firm.

The emergence of their interest comes amid a process which has already been running for several months involving a number of other financial investors.

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Epiris remains in talks to buy Gamma and had been handed a deadline by the Takeover Panel to lodge a formal offer by 2 September or walk away for six months.

Following a post by Sky News on X on Friday morning, Gamma issued a stock exchange statement confirming the interest.

"The board of Gamma notes the recent press speculation and confirms that Waterland Private Equity Investments B.V. is amongst the parties in discussions with the company regarding a possible offer for the entire issued and to be issued share capital of Gamma," it said.

"These discussions remain at a preliminary stage.

"The Giacom Group is acting in concert with Waterland in connection with the possible acquisition, whereby Giacom will acquire certain business divisions of Gamma.

"Discussions between the company and other potential offerors remain ongoing."

Waterland has been given a deadline of 18 September to make a formal offer for Gamma, according to the statement.

Giacom intends to acquire Gamma's UK-based indirect business, which comprises thousands of resellers who serve SME customers, according to industry sources.

Mr Riley's business provides IT, communications and cloud products and services on a wholesale basis from vendors including Vodafone, O2, and Microsoft.

Other suitors which have been associated with Gamma in recent months include Oakley Capital and Providence Equity Partners.

On Friday morning, shares in Gamma were trading around 974p, giving the company a market capitalisation of close to £875m.

Waterland and Giacom have both been contacted for comment.

(c) Sky News 2026: Waterland and Giacom plot £1bn carve-up of London-listed telecoms firm Gamma