BT sets date for shareholder vote on EE deal as board member stands down

Shareholders are being invited to a general meeting at Old Billingsgate on April 30, at 10am. Circulars are currently being sent out to relevant parties. 

 

Proxy forms are due by April 28 for those not attending the meeting in person. 

 

A simple majority is all that is requred for the takeover, revealed at the start of February, to go ahead, although it is still subject to heavy scrutiny from the Competitions and Markets Authority. 

 

The deal, which will give BT access to EE’s 31m customers and the largest 4G network in Europe, will be paid in a combination of cash and ordinary BT shares, issued to both Deutsche Telekom (DT) and Orange. 

 

If the deal goes ahead DT will own 12 per cent of BT, making it the largest single shareholder, and will be permitted to appoint one non-executive member of the BT board of directors. Orange will hold a four per cent stake. 

 

Today BT also confirmed that Phil Hodkinson will step down from the board at the end of next January, marking 10 years as a non-executive director. 

 

Hodkinson has most recently been chairman of the equality of access board since January 2012, having also spent five years as chair of BT's audit and risk committee and subsequently chair of the group's pensions committee. 

 

BT chairman Sir Mike Rake praised him as “a great asset to the board”. 

 

"We have particularly valued his experience in the financial sector as well as socially responsible business practice,” Rake added. "I would like to thank Phil for his valuable contribution over his time with us.”

 

Isabel Hudson will take on both his roles as chair of the equality of access board and the pensions committee with effect from February 1, 2016.