Patrick Drahi hasn’t requested a seat in the boardroom at BT just yet, and it may be a few years until he really starts to flex his muscles.
A BT spokesperson confirmed that the French/Israeli billionaire, who today bought an extra 650mln shares for £960mln in BT, has not yet asked for a seat on the telecom group’s board.
Drahi is best known for founding and owning Altice, the French telecoms company, which he took private in 2021 in a deal which valued the business at US$5.8bn.
Aside from Altice, Drahi also owns the auction house Sotheby’s and US firm Cablevision, as well as founding news channel i24news.
The 59-year-old, born in Morocco, displayed his reputation as a penny-pincher at Cablevision.
When he acquired the cable television company in 2015, staff spoke of a huge cutback on amenities and perks which massively dented morale.
BT, in which Drahi now owns a 24.5% stake, confirmed last week it would be axing up to 55,000 jobs over the next decade, which goes hand in hand with the mogul's cutthroat and ruthless style.
However, industry experts feel BT’s strategy was already in place well before Drahi’s first investment nearly two years ago.
“If you look over the last few years, the BT strategy has been set in stone. They haven’t really deviated that much,” said Paolo Pescatore, Telco analyst at PP Foresight, adding, “It is hard to see what influence he’s really had.”
Cost-saving initiatives, including the phased job cut and moving away from sports, alongside the roll-out of Openreach, are all part of BT’s strategy which is split between Openreach, consumer and business.
Drahi confirmed he doesn't intend to mount a full takeover and is believed to had little influence in BT's decisions so far, but Pescatore alludes that this will not be the case for long.
“Where Drahi will have a huge influence is to help the future growth of BT,” Pescatore added.
Pescatore believes Drahi will steer BT towards the biggest opportunity for telcos in general, which is the acceleration towards fibre, something the UK markets lack in comparison to its foreign competitors.
His stake may have grown, but Drahi has given no indication he has any aspirations to call the shots at BT, at least for now.