BT shareholders overwhelmingly approve EE acquisition

At a BT group general meeting 99.7% of votes were in favour of the proposed acquisition of mobile operator EE, with a 62.8% turnout. However subsequent hurdles will be less of a formality, with UK competition authorities still looking into the deal.

When the deal was first formally announced back in February, Telecoms.com speculated that BT shareholders may be put off by any concessions required to gain regulatory approval, such as spinning off its Openreach wholesale division. This has clearly not been the case, with the vote hardly being on a knife-edge.

BT has published the presentation given by Chief Exec Gavin Patterson at the general meeting. Among the standard corporate speak concerning synergies and a mission statement “To use the power of communications to make a better world”, there were some more substantial nuggets.

The two slides below summarise the rationale that BT’s shareholders apparently found so compelling. As well as those there was confirmation that if the deal is approved by the Competition and Markets Authority after its phase 1 review, the deal will close by the end of September this year, but if a more detailed review is required there won’t be a final decision until the end of March 2016.