BT is taking steps to sell its troubled Italian business to a local rival as part of a restructure of its Global Services division, according to unnamed sources cited by The Telegraph. A senior BT delegation recently visited Milan for talks with BT Italia’s new management following the accounting scandal that saw the company’s shares plummet by over 20 percent and resulted in the resignation of continental Europe chief Corrado Sciolla. According to the report, the talks were aimed at making sure BT Italia is packaged up as something that can be sold to potential buyers such as broadband provider Fastweb or Vodafone Italia. A subsequent report in Italian business daily Il Sole 24 Ore cites Telecom Italia as another possible buyer.
BT Italia was set up in the 1990s as a joint venture between BT and Italian businesses including Mediaset, with BT taking full control in 2005. The unit started to operate as a full MVNO in 2014, saying it had become the first operator in Italy to focus exclusively on the business sector. It currently has around 50,000 business customers and access to a 17,000 km fibre-optic network as well as a 15 percent share of the enterprise fixed data market. It was recently part of the consortium that was awarded a lucrative contract to build Italy’s new public connectivity system, or SPC.
