Patrick Drahi has increased his holding in BT to almost 25%. The move follows last week’s announcement of some of the most stringent cost-cutting the heritage telco has seen in decades.
Altice UK confirmed Tuesday that it had upped its stake to 24.5% from 18%.
The company, controlled by the French-Israeli billionaire, reiterated earlier statements that it had no plans to make a formal offer for BT. It had taken advantage of a brief dip in the price of BT’s UK share price that remains more than 30% up since the start of the year.
Last May, the UK government launched a review into Drahi’s stakebuilding in the former state monopoly, on grounds of national security, but decided in August to take no further action.
Altice owns to French mobile company SFR and also holds interests in Portugal and the United States.
