BT has mentioned the UK authorities will take no additional motion over a transfer by French group Altice to extend its stake within the former British telecoms monopoly after a evaluate in gentle of a nationwide safety act.
The UK authorities this 12 months examined safety implications of the 18 per cent holding by Altice, the funding automobile managed by billionaire Patrick Drahi. Altice had elevated its BT stake from 12 per cent.
The UK determined Drahi wouldn’t have to cut back or promote his stake in BT, the British telecoms group mentioned on Tuesday.
Hypothesis about Drahi’s intentions has intensified since he first spent £2bn on a stake in June final 12 months. He has made debt-fuelled buyouts of corporations in France, Portugal and the US previously.
The Nationwide Safety and Funding Act, which got here into pressure final 12 months, provides the secretary of state the ability to name in transactions they “moderately suspect give rise to or could give rise to a danger to nationwide safety”, based on a enterprise division doc.
