BT takeover rumours send Olivetti shares soaring

NEWS Olivetti has seen a surge in its share price amid speculation it is in takeover talks with BT. Stocks in the Italian IT giant - which recently refocused its business on telecoms hardware - rose ten per cent since last Monday. Trading figures were almost double the average. The speculation comes after a BT-led venture lost its bid for Italy's third mobile licence in June. The Italian government instead awarded the licence to Wind - a consortium led by the state-owned electricity company, Enel. Olivetti connects a quarter of Italy's 16 million mobile phone users. David Brown, a director at Schema, believes a takeover of the Omnitel arm of Olivetti would make commercial sense. BT already has interests in France, Germany and Spain so it would be logical to go after the fourth largest market in Europe, according to Brown. He said: "Italy is a very big market, particularly in mobile telecommunications. Mobile phones have a very high profile: they are very trendy. It is also a very lucrative market at the moment because it there is high penetration at high cost." Brown added that going after a well established existing operator would give BT good access to the market. However, BT is currently denying the rumours.