BT share price: Telco wins domestic telecoms licence in China

BT Group (LON:BT.A) has become the first international company to receive domestic telecoms licences in China, the former telecoms monopoly has said. The new licences will enable the company, which already has operations in China, to sell services direct to Chinese customers.

BT’s share price has been steady in London this morning, having inched 0.13 percent higher to 236.55p as of 08:05 GMT. The advance is largely in line with gains in the benchmark FTSE 100 index this Friday, with the Footsie currently standing 0.18 percent higher at 6,830.98 points.

BT wins domestic licence in China

BT announced in a statement today yesterday that it had become the first international telecommunications company to receive nationwide licences from the China Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. The two licences enable BT China Communications Limited to contract directly with its customers in the country and bill them in local currency.

“We are delighted with this major benefit for our customers. Thanks to cooperation between the governments of the PRC and the UK, we are now able to offer a nationwide service in China that can be scaled up to match the ambitions and needs of our customers,” Bas Burger, CEO of Global Services, BT, commented in the statement.

Analysts on blue-chip telco

UBS reaffirmed BT as a ‘neutral’ today, without specifying a price target on the shares. According to MarketBeat, the blue-chip group currently has a consensus ‘hold’ rating and an average price target of 272.33p.

Barclays meanwhile reckons that the FTSE 100 company’s newly formed enterprise division is facing top-line pressures which are unlikely to abate any time soon.

As of 08:28 GMT, Friday, 25 January, BT Group plc share price is 236.55p.