Indian conglomerate Reliance has rubbished reports that it is plotting a bid for BT.
In a statement filed with the Indian stock exchange, the firm slammed the reporting of India-based The Economics Times.
It said: “We categorically deny any intent to bid for the UK telecoms group, BT, formerly British Telecom, as reported in the article titled ‘Reliance Mulling Bid for UK’s Telco BT Group’ published in The Economic Times dated November 29, 2021.
“The article is completely speculative and baseless. We expect greater diligence and verification of facts before publishing such articles.”
The report had an impact on investors, with BT, which has a market cap of over $16bn, seeing its share price climb by nine percent this morning.
BT has not commented on the speculation.
The Enterprise Times claimed that Reliance Managing Director Mukesh Ambani, dubbed Asia’s richest man, has ambitions to build a global telecoms Goliath – with Reliance already being the biggest company in India based on market value.
Reliance reportedly made a bid for T-Mobile’s Dutch operation earlier this year before it was snagged by a consortium of private investors.
Meanwhile, BT is in the midst of overhauling its legacy business and pivoting to the cloud and emerging technologies.
Wave after wave of redundancies and restructuring have taken place, with the firm’s share price falling around two-thirds over the past five years.
In a separate report over the weekend, the Mail on Sunday reported that private equity firms are circling Openreach at a valuation of $40bn.
