Exclusive: True North, TA revive plan to sell ACT Fibernet in $1 bn deal

TA Associates at an enterprise value of roughly $1.2 billion. However, the sale fell through.“The deal is in initial stages.

Large private equity buyout funds and infrastructure-focused investors have been approached,” the second person said.Bengaluru-based ACT Fibernet was founded by Sunder Raju and K Nagaraju in 2000. Since Reliance Jio and Airtel have cornered much of the broadband market in the last five years, the ACT Fibernet buyer must be ready with a detailed plan to scale and monetize the business, the third person said.A Nomura spokesperson declined to comment.

Queries emailed to True North, TA Associates and Ambit Capital remained unanswered.According to CareEdge rating, the wired broadband segment expanded at a strong compounded annual growth rate of about 19% in three years ending FY25, supported by rising digital consumption, enterprise digitalization, and government initiatives such as BharatNet. However, there is heightened competition from telecom service providers, it added.“The industry recorded a growth of ~3% in FY25 and ~9% in 9MFY26.

Despite the competition from telcos, and alternative technologies, ACT recorded net subscriber additions of 2.5% in FY25 and 3.3% in 9MFY26, per Telecom Regulatory Authority of India data. The company remains the largest non-telco internet service provider in India,” it said.Although market share moderated slightly to 5.2% as of 31 December, 2025 (from 5.5% as of 31 March, 2025), ACT continues to differentiate itself through high network uptime, superior service quality, and value-added offerings such as technology upgrades and bundled over-the-top (OTT) services, supporting customer retention and growth.As per the CareEdge release, ACT’s operating income grew 4% to