Virgin Media O2 job cuts could save £200m but fail to ease debt crisis

Virgin Media O2’s plans to axe up to 4,000 jobs could save the telecoms giant around £200m a year, but may do little to ease its mounting debt burden. The broadband provider is preparing to cut as much as a quarter of its 16,000-strong workforce as it battles fierce competition, falling revenues and concerns over its £22bn debt pile. Erhan Gurses, telecom industry analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, estimated that the proposed redundancies could generate £200m in annual gross personnel savings by 2028, with further reductions in contractor spending potentially increasing that figure. The scale and timing show the cost-saving push has accelerated notably , he said. However, Gurses warned that even substantial job cuts, combined with plans to scale back investment in fibre infrastructure, would leave the company’s debt levels stubbornly high. Yet it wouldn’t effectively resolve the balance-sheet strain, he said, estimating that net leverage could remain close to 5.5 time