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LONDON, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Franco-Israeli telecoms
entrepreneur Patrick Drahi said on Tuesday he had increased his
stake in Britain's BT to 18%, but added that he did not
intend to launch a takeover.
Drahi, BT's biggest shareholder, said he had engaged
constructively with the board and management of BT and looked
forward to continuing that dialogue.
"We continue to hold them in high regard and remain fully
supportive of their strategy, principally to play the pivotal
role in delivering the expansion of access to a full fibre
broadband network; an investment programme which is so important
to both BT and to the UK," he said in a statement.
Drahi, who has pursued debt-fuelled deals to snap up assets
in France, the United States, Portugal and Israel, announced in
June he had bought a 12.1% stake in BT, worth 2.2 billion pounds
($2.9 billion) at the time.
(Reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by Kate Holton)
