The UK government would oppose any attempt by Sunil Bharti Mittal to increase his stake in telecoms group BT in order to maintain sovereign control over “critical national infrastructure”, the Financial Times reported, citing sources.
The stance will limit the billionaire’s influence over BT, whose broadband infrastructure arm Openreach provides fibre broadband to more than 22 million homes in Britain.
Bharti first acquired a major stake in BT in 2024 after purchasing a 24.5% shareholding from Altice founder Patrick Drahi, becoming one of the telecom company’s key strategic investors. At the time, Bharti expressed support for BT’s leadership team and its “ambitious” transformation programme aimed at achieving long-term sustainable growth.
According to LSEG data, BT’s shares have climbed 55% since Bharti’s investment. The stake is currently held through Bharti Televentures.
“It’s not to do with Bharti or India specifically, it’s a matter of keeping critical national infrastructure in sovereign UK control for obvious reasons,” one British government official told FT. “It’s important the market knows this isn’t personal, but resilience and sovereign capability have a different threshold in today’s world than for generations.”
The report added that the UK government seeks to make its position clear to valued overseas investors in anticipation of possible future investments in order to avoid embarrassment.
Any attempt by Bharti to increase its stake above 25 per cent would trigger a formal review under the National Security and Investment Act, a quasi-judicial process.
Mittal has been a longstanding investor in the UK, partnering with the government on a 2020 plan to take control of the failed space start-up OneWeb. His Airtel Africa group is also exploring listing its mobile money business in London after the Iran war disrupted its original plan to float in the Middle East.
Since acquiring his stake in 2024, Mittal has enjoyed a close relationship with BT chief executive Allison Kirkby, with whom he has held several strategy meetings. Last year he secured two board seats.
Earlier, Bharti had clarified during the acquisition that it did not intend to bid for all of BT, Britain’s largest broadband and mobile operator and former state monopoly.
In September, Sunil Bharti Mittal, founder and chairman of Bharti Enterprises, along with Bharti Airtel vice chairman and managing director Gopal Vittal, joined BT’s board as non-independent non-executive directors.
The UK government approved Bharti’s investment in BT at the end of 2024 following a detailed national security review and assurances from the telecom company.
As part of the arrangement, BT established a national security committee to oversee “strategic work that it performs which has an impact on or is in respect of the national security” of the UK, the government had said at the time.
Source: Economic Times