BT Wireless set for £15bn flotation

BT has crushed speculation that it is considering delaying the spin-off of its BT Wireless mobile division and will publish a prospectus for the £15bn demerger in early September.

BT Wireless will hold a briefing for analysts on 6 September to allow them to prepare reports on the business before the prospectus is released the following week, The Times reports.

Speculation had been mounting that the heavily indebted telco could change its plans for BT Wireless after it emerged it had received two bids for its fixed-line assets in recent weeks. It emerged over the weekend that a consortium led by German investment bank WestLB had offered the telco £18bn for its entire national network.

The deal would effectively have wiped out BT's debt mountain which currently stands at £17.5bn - down from a high point of around £30bn.

Last week, the Earth Lease consortium offered the telco £8bn for its local phone exchanges, an offer BT rejected for being too low.

Earth Lease yesterday announced it was planning to go head-to-head with BT and applied to telecoms regulator Oftel for an operating licence.

According to reports, the Babcock and Brown-led consortium has received support from some of BT's arch-rivals, including Colt Telecom, Energis and Thus.

However, the consortium is also thought be considering an application to lease local loop access from BT.