In an interview with the Financial Times, the chief executive of C&W’s international business, Harris Jones, said that he is looking to increase revenues at the unit via a combination of organic growth and acquisitions.
Jones confirmed an interest in purchasing the state-owned telecoms company in the Channel Island of Jersey. The article also said that C&W is expected to make a revised offer for Bermuda-based KeyTech Ltd, after its initial BMD 205m ($205m) cash deal was rejected by the mobile and fixed-line operator in July.
In February the London, UK-based carrier split into two operational units: UK, headed by John Pluthero, and International, headed by Jones.
The UK business makes most of its money from providing services to other telecoms companies, but is struggling against companies including BT Group Plc and Thus Group Plc in a highly aggressive pricing market. The British unit is also undergoing other restructuring activities as it is looking to sell off its troubled consumer broadband unit Bulldog, cutting its UK customer base by around 90% to concentrate on fewer, larger, more profitable customers, and axing a huge part of its UK workforce.
C&W’s international business on the other hand is spread across 33 countries. In these markets C&W offers mobile, broadband, domestic, and international fixed-line services to residential and business customers. Its principal operations are centered around the Caribbean, Panama, Macau, Monaco, and the Channel Islands. The Caribbean operation makes up the bulk of C&W’s international business. In the last fiscal year, international contributed annual operating profit of 315m pounds ($590m), on sales up 8% at 1.21bn pounds ($2.27bn).
However, C&W does not have a happy record with foreign acquisitions. Over the years C&W has sold off many of its international operations, including a highly prized asset in Hong Kong, as well as operations in the US and Japan. Consequently, the market reacted badly to the news and shares in C&W fell 0.6% to 123.5 pence ($2.34) on the London Stock Exchange.
