Patrick Drahi Altice increases its stake in BT to almost 25%

Patrick Drahi’s telecoms investment group has increased its stake in BT to almost 25 percent, just days after the British group announced its most radical cost-cutting in decades.

Altice UK, the vehicle controlled by billionaire Drahi, said on Tuesday it had increased its stake in the former British monopoly from 18 percent to 24.5 percent.

Altice UK reiterated in a brief statement that it had no plans to make a bid for BT, whose share price fell after last week’s mixed results but is still up more than 30 percent this year.

Drahi’s investment vehicle first bought a 12 percent stake in BT in June 2021, and then increased its stake to 18 percent in the same year.

The British government “called in” the investment last year to examine its security implications under the new National Security Act, but decided in August to take no further action.