By Joe Hoppe

Patrick Drahi's Altice UK said Tuesday that it has purchased a further 650 million shares in BT Group for around 961 million pounds ($1.20 billion), bringing its' ownership up to around 24.5% of the company's issued share capital.

The telecommunications and mass media company--established and wholly-owned by French billionaire Patrick Drahi--said it has restated its position to the board of BT that it doesn't plan to make an offer for the company and will be bound by that statement under U.K. takeover rules.

Based on BT's closing share price of 147.85 pence on Monday, this implies Altice's new purchase is worth around GBP961 million. Its full stake is now worth around GBP3.60 billion.

Altice purchased a 12.1% stake in BT in June 2021. It increased its stake to 18% later that year, prompting a U.K. government decision to investigate the purchase on national security grounds, though the government decided not to take action in mid-2022.

Shares in BT at 0703 GMT were up 0.9 pence, or 0.6% at 148.75 pence.

Write to Joe Hoppe at joseph.hoppe@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 23, 2023 03:23 ET (07:23 GMT)

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