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Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim has taken a 3 per cent stake in BT after new chief executive Allison Kirkby unveiled her plans to turn around the UK telecoms group at its annual results last month.
The FTSE 100 company on Wednesday announced the position which was taken by three companies controlled by the family of the tycoon. Slim’s motive is unclear, but he joins other high-profile telecoms shareholders, including billionaire Patrick Drahi’s Altice and German group Deutsche Telekom.
BT said that “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”.
A representative for Slim’s companies did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Slim, formerly the world’s richest man and still the wealthiest person in Latin America, built his fortune from a 1990s concession for Mexico’s state telephone company. His companies account for one-fifth of the country’s benchmark stock index and have large operations in Latin America and Europe.
América Móvil, the telecoms group controlled by Slim and his family, has in the past acquired stakes in European telecoms groups KPN and Telekom Austria. However in 2013 it was forced to retreat in a gruelling €7.2bn takeover battle for the Dutch company after a poison pill defence.
Slim, who has maintained a close relationship with outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, was also rebuffed in an attempt to buy Telecom Italia in 2007 with US group AT&T.
Shares in BT climbed more than 17 per cent in a day when it unveiled annual results last month. Kirkby, who took over as chief executive of BT in February, said at the time that BT would cut another £3bn of costs and increase its dividend after announcing the group had hit an original £3bn target for gross annualised cost savings a year ahead of schedule.
Investors had previously placed a record £300mn bet against BT and Kirkby said: “I always love to squeeze the shorts . . . and prove them wrong.”
She added the group had passed peak capital expenditure on its rollout of full-fibre broadband and was “exploring options to optimise our global business”, including exiting some markets.
Kester Mann, director of consumer and connectivity at CCS Insight, said Slim’s investment was “an endorsement” of Kirkby’s recent strategy update and reflected “good recent momentum for BT” under her leadership.
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