Big question for BT after Indian billionaire snaps up stake

BT Group has swapped one billionaire shareholder for another.

Sunil Bharti Mittal, the Indian billionaire, has announced his conglomerate Bharti Enterprises has bought the 24.5% stake in BT previously owned by the French billionaire Patrick Drahi.

Mr Drahi, the owner of France’s second biggest telecoms company Altice, first acquired a 12.1% stake in BT in June 2021 and built it up over time.

More recently, though, there had been speculation in the City that he was looking to sell his shareholding in order to pay down some of the estimated $60bn (£47bn) worth of debt that Altice has accumulated. Bharti is thought to have paid around £3.2bn for the stake.

Allison Kirkby, BT’s newish chief executive, will be far too polite to say so publicly – but it is a fair bet that she will be delighted to see the back of Mr Drahi.

The speculation that he was looking to sell his stake in BT had depressed the company’s share price, which had long been a cause of frustration to Philip Jansen, her predecessor.

BT’s shares rose by as much as 7.5% at one point today on the removal of what had been seen as a stock overhang.

Ms Kirkby said today: “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.

“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.”

Those sentiments will also doubtless be shared by the UK government.

The arrival of Mr Drahi on BT’s share register caused unease in Whitehall and, when he topped up his stake to 18% in December 2021, the Johnson government indicated it would intervene in the event of him making a full takeover bid.

Vote of confidence

The big question is what Bharti, which today ruled out making an offer for BT, intends to do with its shareholding.

The Indian company said it supports BT’s executive team and strategy and viewed its investment as a “vote of confidence in the UK as an attractive global destination for investment, with a stable business and policy environment attractive for long-term investors”.

The company noted today it has a “significant record of long-term investments across the UK and longstanding familiarity with BT’s business” and pointed out that, from 1997 to 2001, BT had been a significant minority shareholder in Bharti Airtel with a 21% stake.

Mr Bharti Mittal, who revealed today he has already met with BT’s management, added: “BT to my mind has a much brighter future ahead and they need to be following their strategy, if I may say, even more boldly.

“We are not in this for making a buck or looking at stock markets up or down. We are long term telecom investors.”

Strong and stable

It is certainly fair to say that BT looks a more stable business, currently, than it has for most of this century.

Under Mr Jansen the company invested heavily in Openreach, its infrastructure arm, to roll out full fibre to the premises even, at one point, scrapping its dividend to shareholders.

Mr Jansen also patched up the company’s previously troubled relationship with Ofcom, its regulator, as well as coming up with an inventive solution for its previously troublesome BT Sport business, which was parked in a joint venture with the US media giant Warner Brothers Discovery, with BT retaining an option to sell its shareholding to the latter.

Since then Ms Kirkby, who took the helm in February, has stepped up the cost-cutting previously embarked on by her predecessor and announced plans to raise the dividend.

BT’s latest results, published just under three weeks ago and covering the three months to the end of June, saw underlying operating profits come in ahead of expectations.

Arguably, none of this progress has been reflected in BT’s share price, which has risen by a quarter during the last six months but which nonetheless has fallen by around a third since Mr Drahi first declared a stake in the company.

But those familiar with Mr Bharti Mittal’s track record will know he is not just a value investor.

He said today that he saw the stake in BT as a way of building synergies between the UK and India in areas such as artificial intelligence, engineering and research and development on 5G networks.

This is also something close to the heart of the new UK government.

Last month, during a trip to Delhi by the new foreign secretary David Lammy, the UK and India announced a Technology Security Initiative under which they pledged to collaborate more deeply in a number of sectors – chief among them telecoms.

So today’s announcement has to be seen very much in that context.

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Indian inroads

It also has to be seen in the broader context of Indian investment in the UK.

Bharti is merely the latest in a long list of big Indian corporates to have invested in flagship UK enterprises.

The Tata Group bought Corus, the UK’s biggest steelmaker, as long ago as 2007 and a year later followed that by buying Jaguar Land Rover from Ford. Even before that, in 2000, it bought the Tetley tea brand.

Other big investors include Mahindra & Mahindra, which in 2016 acquired the motorcycle manufacturer BSA and Chennai-based TVS Motors, which in 2020 bought the storied motorcycle manufacturer Norton.

A third UK motorcycle brand, Royal Enfield, has been part of Delhi-based Eicher Motors for 30 years.

Other well-known UK brands with Indian owners include Christy, inventor of the world’s first cotton towel, which was bought in 2010 by Mumbai-based Welspun India.

All of these businesses have proved themselves to be good owners of UK assets and, crucially, in it for the long term.

Bharti’s fellow investors in BT – which include Deutsche Telekom and the Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim – will hope this proves the case here.