MARKET REPORT: BT shares fall after Sky strikes broadband deal with CityFibre

Almost £1 billion of the value of BT after a rival struck a major broadband deal.

Shares in the telecoms giant fell more than 6 per cent following news that network provider CityFibre will partner with Sky next year.

The deal will see Sky roll out its broadband to those using the CityFibre network, which serves nearly 4 million homes.

The platform, founded in 2011, aims to reach 8 million households and businesses in the coming years.

BT provides ultra-fast fibre broadband across the UK through its Openreach business, whose largest third-party partner is Sky.

Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Matt Britzman insisted Sky’s CityFibre deal was unlikely to strain relations with BT.

He said CityFibre is “more focused on rural areas where companies like Openreach aren’t building fibre networks, so there is likely to be limited cannibalisation of Openreach’s existing business with Sky”.

BT shares fell 6.4 per cent, or 9.3 pence, to 136.3 pence, reducing their value by 926 million pounds.

The sale comes just a week after Sunil Bharti Mittal’s Bharti Enterprises conglomerate agreed to buy 24.5 percent of the telecom giant owned by embattled French tycoon Patrick Drahi.

In the broader market, the FTSE 100 fell 1 percent, or 83.62 points, to 8,273.32 and the FTSE 250 lost 0.8 percent, or 171.32 points, to 20,986.15.

Shares in a North Sea oil and gas minnow rose after backing a £174m takeover.

Zoo Digital Group has revealed the impact of last year’s Hollywood writers’ and actors’ strikes.

The group, which provides dubbing and subtitling for film and TV distributors, saw revenues fall 55 per cent to £31m in the year to the end of March as new productions ground to a halt.

The company also posted a loss of £15.7m, after making a profit of £6.1m the previous year.

Shares fell 15.2 percent, or 9.6 pence, to 53.4 pence.

Educational software provider Tribal Group has reported a drop in sales following acquisition interest last year.

The group paused discussions on new contracts while in a bid period in October last year after a £159m offer from US peer Ellucian ultimately decided to withdraw.

This, coupled with ongoing concerns among universities about a potential drop in international student numbers, impacted the group’s revenues in the first half of 2024.

Shares fell 3.5 percent, or 2 pence, to 56 pence.

Metalworking company Castings warned that its annual results would be worse than expected as demand among its commercial vehicle customers remained subdued.

Shares fell 9.4 percent, or 32 pence, to 308 pence.

Sosandar will open its third store in October as it prepares for the key festive season.

The womenswear retailer said its latest site will be at the Metrocentre shopping centre on the outskirts of Newcastle.

Sosandar is already preparing to open its first two stores in Chelmsford, Essex, and Marlow, Buckinghamshire, next month. Shares rose 5.7 per cent, or 0.5p, to 9.25p yesterday.

Shares of a kidney disease testing company fell as hopes of a possible takeover faded.

Renalytix, which is listed on the London and New York stock exchanges, began a formal sale process in March following an unsolicited approach from a “large, well-capitalized” public diagnostics company.

But yesterday Renalytix said it was no longer for sale and that it did not believe there was a “realistic prospect” of a bid coming in the near future. The shares fell 20.7 per cent, or 3p, to 11.5p.