Telecoms group Cable & Wireless today played down reports it was considering a break-up, saying talk it was looking to spin off its businesses was premature.
" Any discussion of spinning off our businesses is premature," said Antonia Graham, spokeswoman at the the country's second biggest corporate telecoms provider.
Antonia Graham spokeswoman for C&W
Asked if the group had received any approaches from private equity groups, Ms Graham said C&W had nothing to report.
The Observerreported at the weekend that C&W was considering a break-up via separate sales of its British and international businesses to private equity groups or foreign rivals.
Shares in the company raced to near five-year highs on the report. By 9:50 a.m. the stock was 4.25 percent up at 188.9 pence, off highs of 191.2p.
The group, which dates back to the 1860s when telegraph cables were first laid overseas from Britain, is no stranger to break-up speculation.
C&W announcement in January last year that it was planning to split itself into separate UK and international business units prompted market talk even then that it was being primed for an eventual break-up and sale.
The UK business is C&W's biggest and accounts for more than half of its revenues, but its international business comprising operations that span fixed-line, mobile and broadband services in 34 countries is more profitable.
Speculation about C&W's future has surfaced at regular intervals, most recently last week when traders reported market talk that Deutsche Telekom was interested in making a bid.