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Telecoms

UK government takes no action on Altice stake in BT Group

Business Secretary Kwarteng used his call-in power in May to look at the Altice move

The UK government will not take any action over French group Altice increasing its stake in BT Group to 18%, the UK telecoms group said.

In May, Business Secretary Kwarteng used his call-in power under section 1 of the National Security and Investment Act 2021 to look at the Altice stakebuilding.

Section 1 of the Security Act allows the government to take action where it considers there is a threat to the UK.

In a statement today, BT said the Business Secretary considered exercising his call-in power but it had now been informed by the government no further action would be taken.

At the time, there were reports that Kwarteng was considering blocking the move on the grounds of UK national interest.

Altice is owned by French-Israeli billionaire and telecoms magnate Patrick Drahi, who also owns Israeli cable television company HOT and has built stakes in multiple American and British telecoms companies.

The French group increased its stake in BT to 18% in December 2021.

Drahi has consistently stated that he is not interested in taking over BT and is supportive of management strategy, especially in regard to its full-fibre broadband roll-out.

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