BT couldn't go under - could it?

NEWS BT is among a list of blue-chip names in danger of bankruptcy in the next two years if analysis by French bank BNP Paribas is to be believed. The bank has applied two formulae to Euorpe's leading firms to assess the possibility that some of them could go out of business. The first measure is a gearing ratio which looks at a company's assets relative to their debt levels. The second measure is based on an equation known as Altman Z, designed for US markets. Altman Z looks at debt, profits, sales and share price. In both cases BT scores poorly. Its Altman Z score of 0.98 is well below the 1.8 score seen as borderline for troubled companies. BT is not alone, however. Other tech sector worries include Italy's Olivetti and France Telecom.