billionaire patrick drahi [propriétaire d’Altice Média, qui détient BFMTV et BFM Business, ndlr] announced this Tuesday to increase its stake from 18 to almost 25% in the historic British telecommunications operator BT, of which it was already the largest shareholder, but assures that it has no intention of launching a takeover bid.
Altice UK, a company created and 100% owned by Patrick Drahi, announces “increasing its shareholding (…) to around 24.5% of the capital” of BT, according to a press release, published a few days after the announcement of the operator, which would eliminate up to 55,000 jobs by 2030.
difficult economic context
The increase in BT’s capital by Patrick Drahi, who became its largest shareholder in June 2021 with 12.1% of the capital, shortly after increasing his participation to 18%, had worried the political class at other side of the Channel, in a context of speculation about a possible takeover bid. London had indicated last year to study the impact on national security of this participation in the operator, but the British government finally decided not to oppose it.
BT, which had already started cutting costs amid a tough economy, announced last week it would cut up to 55,000 jobs by 2030. The job cuts account for up to 42% of the 130,000 people employed by the group, directly or through through intermediaries.
Net profit increase
BT saw its turnover decrease by 1% to 20,700 million pounds (23,770 million euros) in its financial year ended at the end of March, despite the 4% increase of its subsidiary Openreach, responsible for the deployment of fiber in the United Kingdom. Its net profit rose sharply to 50%, but mostly thanks to a one-off tax credit tied in part to the sale of BT Sports, as part of a joint venture with Warner Bros. Discovery. Its pre-tax profit fell 12% to 1.7 billion pounds (1.95 billion euros).
BT clarified last week that its cost reduction plan, implemented since April 2020, is on track “with gross savings of 2.1 billion pounds” (2.41 billion euros) approaching its target of 3 billion pounds. BT shares were down 0.41% at 147.25 pence on the London Stock Exchange shortly after 08:30 GMT.
Source: BFM TV
