Deutsche Bank lowers target price on BT

Deutsche Bank said its downgrade of BT to 'sell' in June "could have been better timed" as the shares almost immediately ratcheted to above 200.0p on news that Patrick Drahi had acquired a 12% voting stake.

However, the analysts stated that BT shares had since fallen to "within a whisker" of its then target price of 140.0p.

"Our concern was infrastructure competition which could see Openreach broadband lines fall by 4-6.0m in a base to worse-case overbuild scenario," said DB.

"Including the risk to retail (business-to-business and business-to-consumer), we estimated that alt-network build (including from Virgin Media O2) could take group EBITDA down by £1.0-1.6bn, offsetting any boost from circa £1.0bn capex reduction when BT's 25.0m FTTP project comes to an end by Dec 2026."