India's Bharti takes over Altice UK and acquires 24.5 per cent of BT Group

India's Bharti Enterprises said it will acquire a 24.5 per cent stake (equivalent to about GBP 3.2 billion, USD 4 billion) in BT Group (former state monopolist and now Britain's largest broadband and mobile phone company.) The deal will be done by taking over the UK company's largest shareholder, Altice UK, the vehicle of telecom tycoon Patrick Drahi. India's Bharti Enterprisers said in a statement this morning that it has no plans to make a bid to acquire the entire BT and has not asked for a seat on its board.

Drahi bought its first stake in BT in 2021, but now faces high debt levels.
The Indian company said it will acquire an initial 9.99% stake before seeking to acquire the remaining 14.51% following the necessary approvals, including a voluntary application under theUK National Security and Investment Act.

"This investment demonstrates the confidence we have in BT and the UK," Bharti Enterprises chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal said in a statement.

Altice UK is a subsidiary of billionaire Patrick Drahi's Altice telecommunications group, which has been trying to sell assets over the past year in an attempt to reduce debt accumulated after years of acquisitions. The sales have been complicated by the fallout from a corruption investigation into key individuals linked to the group, and Altice has claimed to be a victim of the alleged wrongdoing.

Earlier this month, Altice agreed to sell video advertising platform Teads for about $1 billion to US advertising company Outbrain Inc. Also for sale is Altice Portugal, the unit at the centre of the corruption investigation involving Armando Pereira, Altice co-founder and Drahi's right-hand man before his arrest in 2023.
Bharti Global is the international investment arm of Bharti Enterprises, with investments in telecommunications, technology, digital infrastructure and space communications, including OneWeb, a space communications company that merged with Eutelsat in 2023.