back to article India’s Bharti Enterprises now largest shareholder in UK's BT Group

India's Bharti Enterprises has swooped in to buy the 24.5 percent stake in BT Group from Patrick Drahi's Altice, at a stroke making it the biggest shareholder in the UK telecoms giant. BT Group, the UK's former state-owned telecoms monopoly, issued a statement today noting that Bharti Global has reached agreement to acquire …

  1. This post has been deleted by its author

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Misinformation.....Solicitation For Ignorant Punters.......

    Quote: "...BT is set to benefit from its impressive Openreach program...."

    Where I llve BT/Openreach have REPEATEDLY assured me that they have NO PLANS for fibre to my apartment. Plus they wibble on about "maybe 2026 or 2028".

    In the mean time, a Swedish company (Yup.....Swedish) is installing fibre in my street.

    "Impressive".......no, I don't think so. Misinformation for potential investors....yup....that's what is going on here!!!

  3. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

    Why is this good for BT?

    "We welcome investors who recognize 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,"

    Not being involved at anywhere near the stratospheric levels of corporate management, I don't really understand how an Indian company buying shares from a French company actually turns into an "investment" in BT, other than as a potential money spinner for the buyer if the shares rise in value. It's not like any of the cash is going into the BT coffers for further expansion and larger C-Suite bonuses, is it?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Why is this good for BT?

      Not sure, but would/could BT outsource to Bharti Global to get cheaper labour promised than the market rates? And Bharti gets gifted dividends from BT's increased profit as a consequence.

      1. UnknownUnknown

        Re: Why is this good for BT?

        BT used to joint own Tech Mahindra. A 30% founder equity stake from 1986…. so been there, done that, reorganised this, reorganised that, expansion, diversification, return to core businesses, sold TM off in chunks and pissing wider business opportunities up the wall (FM deal for Primark for example) and wild investments in stuff like Sports it should never have gotten into without a global JV partner like Fox Sports (belatedly fire selling/partnering to Warner-Discoveries TNT Sport in the end).

        https://telecomlead.com/telecom-services/bt-exits-tech-mahindra-by-selling-9-1-stake-for-rs-1011-crore-24686?amp=1

  4. venkatarangan

    I am reading in the media in India, that BT was one of the earliest investors in then "startup" Bharti Airtel. It looks like things are coming a full circle. Best of luck to Airtel and BT.

  5. dr john

    you missed out the decimal point in the share price

    You had me really excited for a few moments that. If only it was correct... PARTY TIME!

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