BT, battling to reduce a 30 billion pound ($44.3 billion) debt pile, said on Tuesday it was in early talks with its Spanish partners about a possible listing of Airtel, a Spanish venture controlled by Vodafone.
BT, once one of Europe's most aggressive overseas telecoms investors, has faced calls to abandon its ambitions in Spain as well as in France and Italy to focus on domestic businesses. But the group insisted it remained committed to Europe and Japan.
"We are in discussions with (cellphone market leader) Vodafone and Airtel management about the possibility of an IPO (initial public offering)," a spokesman said, adding British Telecommunications had initiated the talks that could lead to an IPO by end-2001.
But he added: "Our thinking is that this might be appropriate for our holding in Airtel -- but that doesn' to suggest that it might be right elsewhere. Speculation has persisted that BT might use an Airtel IPO to cash in its 17.8 percent stake -- either as part of a strategy to sell other European minority assets, or as a possible move to ease an alliance with Spain's top carrier, Telefonica."
BT needs to cut debt to maintain its top investment rating, and it has been struggling to shore up a share price that has tumbled 55 percent over the last year -- underperforming even the sickly Stoxx European telecoms sector by about 32 percent.
Its stock fell 2.9 percent to 671-1/2p by 1310 GMT.
Reuters