(Adds background, updates shares)
LONDON, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Shares in BT jumped as
much as 9% on Monday after India's Economic Times said Reliance
Industries was weighing a bid for the British telecoms
group.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance might make an
unsolicited offer to buy into BT or try to get a controlling
share, the report said, citing sources familiar with the matter.
It could also partner with BT's networks arm Openreach and
fund its fibre expansion plans, it added.
Reliance and BT declined to comment.
After rising as much as 9%, shares in BT were trading up 8%
at 166.35 pence at 0842 GMT, valuing the company at 16.5 billion
pounds ($22 billion). Reliance was up 2.2% at 2,465 rupees.
The British company, whose shares have more than halved in
the last five years, was already the subject of takeover
speculation after Franco-Israeli billionaire Patrick Drahi
bought a 12.1% stake this year.
Drahi will be free to buy more of the British telecoms giant
on Dec. 11, having pledged in June he wouldn't launch a takeover
offer for the company - a statement that precluded him from
doing so for six months under British takeover rules.
($1 = 0.7500 pounds)
(Reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by Kate Holton and Edmund
Blair)