By Ben King, 14 August 2001 07:30
NEWS BT hopes to reach an agreement with AT&T to break up their loss-making joint venture, Concert, within two or three weeks. However, talks on ending Concert have been held up by disagreements over the division of Concert's assets, with no arrangement about how to divide customers between the two, or decide how much each is worth. Citing sources close to the talks, the Financial Times claims BT's new chairman Sir Christopher Bland believes a resolution of the future of Concert is essential if the company is to be able to successfully spin off its mobile division. BT wants to publish a prospectus for the demerger of BT Wireless by the end of next month. Such a prospectus would have to include a valuation of the rump of BT, known as BT Future, including a reduced assessment of the value of BT's stake in Concert. BT's 50 per cent stake in the venture was recently valued at £1.4bn, but Concert has been losing more than £300m per quarter.
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