BT and AT&T have bought 30 per cent of Japan Telecom and promised to boost investment in the company, Japan’s third-largest operator. BT’s regional director for Japan, Richard Slogrove, said this was the time to “really lay into NTT” in Japan’s telecoms market, which at $100bn ranks second only to the United States.
Chris Godsmark, telecoms analyst at Investec Henderson Crosthwaite, welcomed the deal. He predicted BT would use Japan Telecom’s national fibre-optic network along the railway lines of its largest shareholder, Japan Railway Co, to link its city networks in Tokyo and Osaka. Mr Godsmark said: “This further enriches BT’s position in Japan and will enable BT to connect its city centre ring rollout.”Under the terms of the deal, AT&T and BT’s Japanese operations will be absorbed by Japan Telecom. BT will end up with a 20 per cent interest, while AT&T will gain 10 per cent, although each will hold 15 per cent of the shares, giving them equal voting rights. Both will appoint executive directors to Japan Telecom’s board.BT will also take a significant stake in Japan Telecom’s mobile joint venture with AirTouch and Nissan Motor, which is applying for a third- generation licence to provide high-speed Internet and other wireless data links in Japan.Industry speculation is rife that BT and AT&T are pushing to raise their stake to 33.4 per cent – enough for a veto on management decisions – as Japan Telecom’s investment needs rise and profits shrink to 5bn yen (pounds 26m) this year. Japan Telecom made 8.1bn yen net profit in the year 31 March on revenues of 392bn yen.The deal, the first joint investment by the two telecoms giants since they launched their $10bn Global One venture last July, also marks the first major inroad into Japan’s domestic market.

Japan boasts one of the largest concentrations of lucrative multinational clients in the world.. THE CO-OPERATIVE movement was up in arms yesterday after reports that a US finance house backed by a South African retail group is set to launch a pounds 2bn hostile bid for the Co-operative Wholesale Society (CWS). Members of the movement stand to pocket windfall payments of up to pounds 2,000 if the bid comes off. Babcock & Brown, a private asset finance company based in San Francisco, is proposing to dismantle the CWS and sell its retail arm to Pepkor, the South African retailer that owns Poundstretcher.
Babcock & Brown and Pepkor were unavailable for comment. However, City sources indicate that the CWS’s other operations, including banking, funeral parlours and travel agencies, could also be sold on.The move echoes that of Andrew Regan two years ago, when the 31-year- old entrepreneur tried to bid for the CWS but failed, damaging his reputation and that of his City advisers, Hambros Bank, in the process.A spokesman for the CWS said last night: “Let me make it very clear – CWS is not for sale. The board has a veto over the way the business is run, and it is rock solid behind the CWS management and chief executive Graham Melmoth, so we’re not looking at a building society situation.”The spokesman was adamant that offering pounds 2,000 inducements to members would not work. He said: “We have had no contact with them [Babcock & Brown].

If any attempt were made to buy us, we would resist the attempt just as we did two years ago [with Mr Regan].”The spokesman added: “We haven’t received any approach at all, so as far as we’re concerned there is no bid.”Brian Keelan, a corporate financier with SBC Warburg (now part of UBS) led the successful counterattack on behalf of the Co-op against Mr Regan. Mr Keelan is now running UBS’s global leveraged finance business in New York, but is keeping a quiet eye on developments in the UK.The CWS spokesman said they were not retaining any City advisers at the moment, although it was “too early to say” whether they would end up doing so.Even with inducements of pounds 2,000 per member being offered, Co-op sources reckon the South Africans have “failed to do their homework”. The Co-op is structured differently from a mutual building society, the spokesman pointed out.Unlike a building society, any ownership decision does not rest with members but with the CWS’s elected board. This has 28 members, drawn from 50 independent co-operative societies across the UK. That, together with a labyrinthine constitution and steadfast leadership from Mr Melmoth, should see off any predator, a spokesman said.Another source in the Co-operative movement said: “The South African asset strippers are in for a hell of a fight.”. BRADFORD & BINGLEY Building Society will today announce the results of a close-run vote on whether to turn itself into a bank or maintain mutual status, following a turnout of over 60 per cent of its members. A spokesman for the society said yesterday that over 1.6 million of 2.5 million eligible members voted He said: “This is as big a turnout as we expected It has created a clear result.