By Paul Sandle and Kate Holton
LONDON (Reuters) – Billionaire telecoms investor Patrick Drahi is not pushing BT to sell a stake in its network arm Openreach and like other top investors thinks a partner may not be needed to build fibre, a person familiar with the situation told Reuters.
Drahi’s surprise announcement that he controlled 12.1% of BT, making him the biggest shareholder, sparked speculation that he would push for a stake sale or spin-off of Openreach, and came less than a month after BT set out a plan to find a partner to help build part of its new fibre network.
But the person who spoke on condition of anonymity said separating Openreach from the rest of the company would prove a huge distraction during a fibre build, and that some of the biggest shareholders did not think a joint venture partner was needed unless they could access cheaper capital.
Drahi’s Altice and BT declined to comment.
Drahi, a Franco-Israeli businessman, surprised investors earlier this month when he announced that he controlled a stake in BT worth about 2.2 billion pounds, driving the British firm’s shares to a 17-month high.
The telecoms billionaire met BT management in London last week, two sources said. He confirmed in private what he had said in public: he backed spending billions to build the fibre and 5G networks that Britain needs to boost productivity.
The first source said Drahi was fully aligned with BT’s other major shareholder, Deutsche Telekom.
(Reporting by Paul Sandle and Kate Holton; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
