Israeli-French businessman Patrick Drahi has increased his stake in UK telecom giant British Telecom (BT) Group plc (LSE: BT) from 18% to 24.5%. The deal was completed by Drahi's company Altice UK, which reportedly bought 650 million shares for £147.85 per share for a total purchase of £960 million.
Patrick Drahi is the controlling shareholder in Altice, which is the parent company of Israeli telecom Hot Telecommunications. In addition to Israel, Altice, which is considered one of the world's leading telecom groups, also has major operations in France, Portugal, the US and other countries. Altice purchased a 12% stake in BT in 2021, increasing its holding to 18% last year.
Drahi repeated that he has no plans to try and take control of BT and intends cooperating with the company, expressing high regard for the company's current management. Earlier this month BT announced a restructuring program, which will see it shed 55,000 jobs by 2030
It remains to be seen whether Drahi pursues the same strategy with BT as he did with Hot. He first entered the Israeli market by buying a small stake in Hot from Bank Leumi and then began gradually increasing his holdings until he eventually achieved control of the company.
BT is one of the world's biggest telecom companies and some market sources believe it is only a matter of time until he increases his stake further in the company.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on May 23, 2023.
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