BT rubbishes rumours that CEO tried to force out its chairman

Telecom giant says Sky News reports are ‘without foundation’

BT has rubbished rumours that its CEO pressured chairman Jan du Plessis into resigning because he was standing in the way of the telco giant's efforts to transform itself.

Sky News claimed on Friday that BT's CEO Philip Jansen gave BT's board an ultimatum, threatening to resign if they did not replace the chairman.

The article said that Jansen offered the ultimatum because he was frustrated by the pace of change within BT and that du Plessis was impeding efforts to transform the company.

BT announced that du Plessis' plans to resign last week and would step down once a successor was appointed. He initially took on the chairman role in November 2017.

In a statement published today, BT hit back at the Sky News article, claiming that it was "without foundation" and added that there has been no disagreement between the board and executive management over the company's strategy.

"The company announced on 1 March the intention of Jan du Plessis to retire as chairman in 2021 once a successor has been appointed, and we are very sorry he will be leaving," the statement reads.

"The chairman throughout his tenure has demonstrated strong leadership of the Company, been extremely supportive of management and any suggestion that he has impeded the transformation of BT is without foundation."

BT has set course on a radical strategy to transform the business over several years. It sold off its French networking arm to Computacenter last year.

It meanwhile sold off its fibre networks and datacentre business in Spain to Portobello Capital in 2019.

The divestitures come after BT announced in 2018 that it plans to lay off 13,00 staff - mainly in its overseas Global Service business - to save £1.5bn over the next three years.