Business minister Kwasi Kwartang is poised to thwart any further stake building in BT by Frech-Israeli business mogul Patrick Drahi.
Despite his insistence that his multinational telecoms company Altice — BT's largest shareholder — has no intention of launching a takeover bid, Drahi increased his stake in the British telecoms multinational from 12% to 18% in December 2021.
The accumulation triggered a six-month pause under UK takeover rules.
Now business minister Kwasi Kwarteng is expected to block any further share acquisitions by Drahi under national security legislation.
But the government might not stop there.
The freshly inked National Security and Investment Act, which gives ministers certain powers to protect critical infrastructure, could be retroactively applied to Drahi’s existing 18% stake.
His stake had already come under the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS)’s microscope in May, when an investigation into the deal was launched.
BT shares have remained largely unaffected, dropping 0.23% on Monday July 11.