Shares of BT Group PLC (LON: BT.A)are likely to open higher on Monday after it emerged that the company’s board had requested bankers at Goldman Sachs to update its bid defence strategy against a potential takeover bid from a rival firm.
The company, which is currently valued at £10.1 billion is preparing to defend itself against a potential takeover bid worth £15 billion representing a 50% premium to Friday’s closing price.
A bidder who is willing to pay that much for BT Group is not likely to take no for an answer, which means that they could launch a proxy war against the board as part of a wider hostile takeover bid.
Ready to put what you’ve learned into practice?
Try IG’s platform with £10,000 in virtual funds and practise trading
without putting your own money at risk.
Try IG with a demo account →
Spread bets and CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 69% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider.
Learn the markets with IG Academy
Build your knowledge with IG Academy educational content, then use a
demo account to practise what you’ve learned on the IG platform.
Explore IG →
Spread bets and CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 69% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider.
See how trading works before risking real money
IG’s demo gives you access to thousands of markets and £10,000 in
virtual funds, so you can explore the platform and test your ideas first.
Open an IG demo →
Spread bets and CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 69% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider.
Turn trading theory into practical experience
Learn with IG Academy, explore charts and market tools, and practise
strategies in a simulated trading environment before going live.
Start practising with IG →
Spread bets and CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 69% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider.
Ready to take your learning further?
IG combines market education, analysis and an established trading platform,
giving you the tools to keep learning as you develop your trading skills.
Discover IG →
Spread bets and CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 69% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider.
However, BT Group is the largest telecoms provider in the UK, which implies that the government might not take kindly to a hostile takeover, especially by a foreign company.
Now that Huawei has been banned from the UK’s 5G networks, BT will play an important role in Britain’s 5G buildout having committed £12 billion to the project.
BT Group share price
BT shares have been on a downtrend this year and have lost 47.1% of their value at the start of the year when they were trading at 192.7p given Friday’s closing price of 101.8p.
