“If consumers and investors respond positively to the UK deal, it could give Vodafone licence to do more deals in other countries,” Howett says. “Others in Europe have looked on enviously as the CMA has allowed consolidation of operators as a way to propel investment in infrastructure. The previous EU competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, had been very anti-consolidation, and there is pressure on her replacement [the Spanish politician, Teresa Ribera] to allow more deals.”
"Matthew Howett, chief executive of Assembly Research, says Kirkby has impressed investors by seeing through the cuts and focusing on BT’s core broadband and connectivity business. “It’s a return to basics and making sure the core parts work well and are profitable,” he adds. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw disposals of non-core assets.”
Howett says Kirkby, who was previously chief executive at Telia, the Swedish telecoms company, and has been on BT’s board since 2019, impressed with the speed at which she got to work fixing long-term issues and “bringing everyone on board for the journey”. “There is a lot of staff, and a lot of them are engineers working out of vans around the country, not people in offices in London,” Howett says. “She is out there visiting everyone everywhere.”
James Robinson, senior analyst at Assembly, a research firm, said a deal would reduce the number of mobile operators serving so-called mobile virtual network operators, which include the likes of Tesco, “potentially leaving them in a weaker bargaining position”.
He added: “The CMA might consider remedies to maintain retail competition, including requiring the merged firm to reserve a portion of network capacity for virtual players.”
