The boss of BT helped broker the sale of nearly a quarter of the business to Indian billionaire Sunil Bharti Mittal, The

Mail on Sunday understands. Allison Kirkby, who took over as head of the telecoms giant last February, arranged the crunch talks where a deal was struck for the sale of the 24.5 per cent of BT held by French tycoon Patrick Drahi, according to a source.

The intervention last summer was said to have come amid rising fears that Drahi could be forced into a fire sale of his stake to help pay down a £47 billion debt pile at his Altice conglomerate.

Drahi appears to have been caught off-guard when rising interest rates caused his debt bill to soar. Altice was also struggling after a corruption investigation into its activities in Portugal.

'You don't want a distressed seller with a stake of that size,' the source said.

Eventually, a deal to sell Drahi's stake to Bharti was agreed in August. The price tag was not disclosed, though the size of the stake is now about £3.4 billion.

It is unusual for a chief executive to engage in talks about shareholder structure, as they usually focus on the day-to-day running of the business. The task is usually left to the chairman.

While Kirkby may have helped foster the talks, the source said chairman Adam Crozier had been 'very much aware and involved' with the deal.

The purchase went through a national security review before being approved by Ministers in December.

Drahi still has a UK presence, as he bought London auctioneer Sotheby's in 2019 for £3 billion via his family office.

The deal has reversed BT's relationship with Bharti. From 1997 to 2001, BT owned 21 per cent of Bharti Airtel, and had two members on the board as it became an early backer of the tycoon's Indian telecoms business. The firm is now the world's third-largest mobile service provider, with Bharti's personal and family wealth estimated at £25 billion. He is also the majority shareholder in Airtel Africa, another telecoms giant listed on the FTSE 100.

It is understood that Kirkby knew him before negotiations over Drahi's stake in BT began.

Bharti's history with BT seems to have allowed Kirkby to shore up her strategy of job cuts, with the new dominant shareholder said to be in alignment with her plan. 'Bharti is very supportive of Allison. They both seem to share an impatience about getting on with transforming the business,' said the source.

Karen Egan, at Enders Analysis, said BT's main focus would be how to recover the vast amounts of cash it has been spending on an ambitious drive to roll out fibre broadband internet across the UK.

'It needs to press ahead with that,' Egan said, adding that the group would want to avoid any 'nasty surprises' arising out of its international BT Global division. Egan agreed Bharti was 'very supportive' of the current strategy and that the Indian giant would likely be 'encouraging the company to digitalise faster'.

BT will deliver a trading update on Thursday on the final quarter of 2024. Markets are forecasting the telecoms group will post sales of £5.2 billion, down from the £5.3 billion delivered in the three months to December 31, 2023.

This year presents fresh challenges for Kirkby. BT-owned EE is set to be knocked off its perch as the UK's biggest mobile network after a merger between its rivals Vodafone and Three was approved by competition regulators in December.

The £16.5 billion tie-up will create Britain's largest mobile network with 27 million customers.

But Kirkby is also tasked with pushing forward plans to slash jobs from 130,000 in 2023 to between 75,000 and 90,000 by 2030 to shave billions off BT's cost base.

The group is looking to potentially sell off or break up its international arm, which the group has been separating from the rest of the business.

So far, shareholders appear relatively optimistic about the plans as well as the arrival of Bharti on the register, with the company's stock price having risen 22 per cent over the past 12 months.

But Kirkby will need to keep an eye on another billionaire investor making his mark on the company.

Carlos Slim, an 84-year-old Mexican business magnate, bought a 3.2 per cent stake in BT in June before increasing his holding to 4.3 per cent in September.

BT declined to comment.