Mexican billionaire and Latin America's richest man Carlos Slim has bought a 3% stake in telecom giant BT Group PLC (LSE:BT.A) for around £400 million.
A spokesperson at Slim’s Grupo Carso claimed the move was a “financial investment, like many the group makes”.
He joins other high-profile investors of the company including French billionaire Patrick Drahi through his firm Altice, which owns around 24.5%, and Deutsche Telekom, which holds a stake of around 12%, for which it paid around £5.6 billion back in 2015.
In response to Slim's investment, BT said: "We welcome any investor who recognises the long-term value of our business” and “look forward to engaging with Inbursa, just as we do with all investors”.
Slim has previously held the spot as the world's richest man, having built his wealth from an investment in Mexico's state telephone company, with his businesses now accounting for a fifth of the country's leading stock index.
In May, boss Allison Kirkby said the UK telecoms company had "now reached the inflection point on our long-term strategy".
She said the next phase of BT's transformation will see a sharper focus on customers in the UK, "by accelerating the modernisation of our operations, and by exploring options to optimise our global business," implying further sales of overseas operations are coming.