BT Group to Shift Remaining International Business into New Unit

Broadband and telecoms giant BT Group has reportedly taken the decision to shift its remaining international business into a new standalone division, which is expected to comprise over 8,000 staff and will report separately from the company’s UK business.

BT has been gradually reducing their international operations for some time as part of wider cost cutting plans, which was most recently reflected in the agreement to sell their often troubled Italian business (BT Italia S.p.A) to Retelit for an undisclosed sum (here). Prior to that, we also covered the acquisition of their Irish wholesale and enterprise business unit – ‘BT Communications Ireland Ltd.‘ (BTCIL) – by the Speed Fibre Group (here).

According to the FT (paywall), the move to carve out their international business into a standalone unit could make it easier to sell, or possibly even merge with another network operator. But there’s also the potential for further redundancies and some other short-term challenges, such as with respect to the fact that BT has historically opted not to separate their financial disclosures between units (i.e. it’s currently hard to value the new unit).

In an internal memo sent to staff today, BT is reported to have said that the decision would give BT “the best chance of success” in both domestic and international markets, particularly as their competitors are said to have “gained strength”. The former chief of BT’s Business division, Bas Burger, is expected to run the “industry leading” new unit.