BT said to consider joint ventures with Deutsche Telekom

BT Group is said to be considering joint ventures with Deutsche Telekom once the acquisition of EE goes through and it becomes its largest shareholder.

The group’s chairman, Sir Mike Rake, said strategic partnerships and more media deals to boost the television channels shown over BT’s broadband network could be considered.

He also refused to rule out a bid for publicly-owned broadcaster Channel 4, if it were privatised next year.

Sources told the Financial Times that the group has spoken about the broadcaster with shareholders at investor conferences.

“We continue to look [at] what is out there,” said Rake.

“The company’s covenant is much stronger than it was, our pension deficit is manageable, and we will be in a strong position to continue to look at the opportunities carefully.”

As part of BT’s £12.5bn acquisition of mobile network operator EE – due to complete next month – Deutsche Telekom, which co-owns EE with France’s Orange, will have a 12% stake in the telecoms company.

At 1132 GMT, BT shares were down 0.1% to 465.10p.