BT faces debt reckoning this week

British Telecom will come under pressure this week to explain how it intends to slash its spiralling debt mountain.

British Telecom will come under pressure this week to explain how it intends to slash its spiralling debt mountain.

The telecoms giant is set to meet its biggest shareholders to try to restore confidence after seeing its share price plummet to its lowest price for over two years.

The company has accumulated debts of more than £30 billion sterling.

Tumbling stock markets have ruined plans to raise £10 billion this year by floating BT Wireless, its mobile phones arm and Yell, its Yellow Pages division.

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It is now thought BT's management may be forced to ask shareholders to stump up the cash for a discounted rights issue to raise more than £5 billion.

Speculation is mounting shareholders will call for the head of chairman Sir Iain Vallance in return. They may also want chief executive Sir Peter Bonfield to go.

Sir Iain has dominated BT since privatisation in 1984 and is not due to retire until July next year.

A BT spokesman said there are no plans for Sir Iain to step down before that date.

Some analysts believe shareholders will leave BT with little choice if it decides a rights issue is the only feasible way forward.

BT had hoped a rights issue would not be necessary but it faces a downgrading from credit rating agency Standard & Poor's next month. If this happens, BT will face an extra £150-200 million in interest charges.

PA