BT said to be boosting defences against possible Altice bid

BT shares surged on Tuesday following a report the telecoms group has moved to strengthen its defences against a possible takeover bid by French billionaire Patrick Drahi, by hiring advisory firm Robey Warshaw.

According to Sky News, the advisory firm was formally appointed by BT in recent weeks to work alongside Goldman Sachs. The move comes shortly before a 10 December threshold that will release Altice, the telecoms investor controlled by Patrick Drahi, from a binding commitment not to launch a takeover bid for BT.

Altice bought a 12% stake in BT in June for £2.2bn.

Sky cited city sources as saying that BT's board is engaged in a range of scenario planning exercises including Altice lodging a formal takeover offer or demanding that it spins off either its consumer division, which includes mobile network EE, or its Openreach broadband infrastructure arm.

At 1600 BST, the shares were up 6% at 143.35p.