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London/Paris (pte031/26.11.2004/14:10) - The British telecoms company BT Group http://www.btplc.com has sold its entire holding in the French satellite operator Eutelsat http://www.eutelsat.com . As the former British monopoly confirmed today on Friday, it has received around 363 million pounds (519.1 million euros) from the investment company GS Capital Partners 2000, a partnership affiliated to the firm Goldmann Sachs.
The transaction is conditional on the approval of the board of Eutelsat, but is expected to be completed in the current financial year, BT said. Prior to BT's sale of its stake, France Telecom, German Telekom and Telecom Italia had already sold their holdings in the world's third largest satellite operator in the past two years to reduce debt.
According to the Financial Times, BT is cashing its stake out of non-core interests in the face of growing domestic challenges, including increased competition and pressures from regulators to further open up its network to rivals. Furthermore, the company needs the money for its multi-billion pound project to digitalise its entire infrastructure. BT announced on Thursday that its head of retail Pierre Danon had left for a senior position at French IT consultation group Capgemini. Danon is set to take up the post of COO there early next year.
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