British Telecom will come under pressure this week to explain how it intends to slash its spiralling debt mountain.
The telecoms giant is set to meet its biggest shareholders to try to restore confidence after seeing its share price plummet to its lowest price for over two years.
The company has accumulated debts of more than £30bn sterling billion and tumbling stock markets have ruined plans to raise £10bn this year by floating BT Wireless, its mobile phones arm, and Yell, its Yellow Pages division.
It is now thought BT's management may be forced to ask shareholders to stump up the cash for a discounted rights issue to raise more than £5bn.
Speculation is mounting that shareholders will call for the head of chairman Sir Iain Vallance in return. They may also want chief executive Sir Peter Bonfield to go.
BT Wireless was valued at more than £40m at one stage, but the sharp falls in telecom stocks have seen this value plummet. BT planned to float a 25% stake in BT Wireless on the open market.
