Telecoms group Cable & Wireless again played down speculation it was considering selling its business, saying today it made more sense to acquire assets and build up its own operations.
Persistent bid speculation has underpinned shares in the telecoms provider as a recovery in its laggard UK business gathers pace, making it at one point this year one of the top performing telecoms stocks globally.
But Jim Marsh, chief executive of Europe, Asia & US, said his corporation, far from being on the selling block, might in fact be on the acquisition trail.
'The question is, if you have a unique capability like we do, why would you want to sell that?' Marsh said after opening a new office in Hong Kong.
'Surely it's more likely that you'd want to continue to build up the business you have today, by buying things. So it's unlikely that we will choose to sell the business when we've got such unique asset capability', he said.
Cable & Wireless, with a history that dates back to the 1860s when telegraph cables were first laid overseas from Britain, is in the throes of a radical overhaul in the UK that will slash 3,000 jobs over five years.
