CABLE & WIRELESS ABANDONS SALE OF 20% OF BOUYGUES TELECOM TO TELECOM ITALIA.

The British telecommunications operator Cable and Wireless announced on July 13 that it was abandoning plans to sell its 20% stake in the French mobile telephony company Bouygues Telecom to Telecom Italia. The stake will instead be sold to existing Bouygues Telecom shareholders who have exercised their right of pre-emption. The Cable & Wireless stake is estimated to be worth GBP456 million. Cable & Wireless has indicated that this development should in no way undermine the global alliance it announced in mid-April with Telecom Italia, and is continuing to actively negotiate the first part of this global partnership. However, several aspects of this alliance are now likely to be amended, over and above the modification of the agreement on Bouygues Telecom. It is therefore now "unlikely" that in the foreseeable future Telecom Italia will make a direct investment...