Bharti Enterprises has agreed to buy around 24.5 per cent stake in BT Group from the British telecommunication firm’s top shareholder, Altice UK, the company said in a stock exchange filing on Monday.
This transaction will make Bharti Global the largest shareholder in BT Group.
At current market price, Drahi’s stake is valued at $4 billion, reported Reuters on August 12.
Drahi first bought into BT in 2021, but his Altice group has come under mounting pressure to sell assets to cut debts of as much as $60 billion, a pile that allowed him to build his media-to-telecoms empire in an era of low interest rates.
BT’s shares have risen by 24 per cent in the last six months, as the fruits of its long-term investment plan to build the country’s fibre network start to materialise.
“We welcome investors who recognise the long-term value of our business, and this scale of investment from Bharti Global is a great vote of confidence in the future of BT Group and our strategy,” said Allison Kirkby, chief executive officer.
“BT has enjoyed a long association with Bharti Enterprises, and I’m pleased that they share our ambition and vision for the future of our business. They have a strong track record of success in the sector, and I look forward to ongoing and positive engagement with them in the months and years to come,” Kirkby added.
Bharti Enterprises also owns Bharti Airtel, India’s second-largest telecom operator with operations in Africa.
Bharti Enterprises said it would acquire an initial 9.99 percent stake before seeking to acquire the remaining 14.51 per cent following regulatory approvals, including voluntarily applying for clearance under the UK National Security and Investment Act.
Bharti said in a statement on Monday that it had no intention of making an offer to acquire the whole of BT, the former state monopoly of Britain’s biggest broadband and mobile company.
“This investment demonstrates the confidence we have in BT and in the UK,” Bharti Enterprises Chair Sunil Bharti Mittal said in a statement.
The two groups have a long relationship, which began more than two decades in 1997 after the UK-based firm acquired a 21 per cent stake in Bharti Airtel.
According to the Mittal-led group, this investment will further help create “new synergies in the telecom sector between both countries in the areas of AI and 5G R&D and core engineering amongst others”.
“We review global investment opportunities in the world of technology from digital infrastructure to software. BT is well known to us from the long association with Bharti, so we are pleased to have this opportunity to acquire a significant stake in the company,” said Shravin Bharti Mittal, managing director of Bharti Global.
BT was a minority shareholder in Bharti Airtel between 1997-2001.
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