Cable & Wireless receives £4bn windfall

Cable & Wireless has reported over £4bn in exceptional gains following a restructuring strategy that saw the company sell off some of its operations in favour of expansion into the ISP market.

Figures for the past 12 months show that on top of pre-tax profits of £1.12bn, the company earned £3.08bn selling assets related to the groups operations in Hong Kong, the Caribbean and the UK.

Sales included Cable & Wireless stakes in One2One, Bouygues Telecom, and shares in Japanese and South African mobile companies.

While the total profit, including exceptional gains is up from last years figure of £1.82bn, actual pre-tax profit decreased by 24 per cent.

A Cable & Wireless spokesman told silicon.com the profit drop was due to conditions in the Hong Kong market and had been expected.

Cable & Wireless is currently finalising the sale of its Hong Kong operations, which should be completed by August.

According to the company, the sale, and additional sales in the Caribbean, should leave it with £4.3bn to plough into expansion and Internet acquisitions.

Plans to merge the company's wholly owned ventures in Europe, Japan and the US under one holding, should come into effect within the next few weeks.

The spokesman dismissed reports that Cable & Wireless stood to make £10bn from the sales, and rejected speculation that the company was being viewed as an attractive takeover target. "Cable & Wireless is in a standalone position," he said.