Saudi Arabia and other long term investors are better suited to BT than the current crop of shareholders

BT has been a terrible investment for stockpickers this year – myself included, I’m afraid to say.

Not only this year, either.

Having leaped in 2015 on heady optimism that former boss Gavin Patterson would to turn it into some super-shiny media content giant, it’s been racing downhill faster than new boss Philip Jansen on his beloved Austrian ski slopes.

Shares that would have cost you nearly a fiver back then are today just 120p today.

So, why is the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund interested in snapping them up?

It emerged at the weekend that the oil state has been steadily buying slugs of stock in previous weeks and is edging close to the 5% level at which it has to disclose an interest.

Reason one is almost certainly that it likes the price. Assets bought in dangerous times like these often turn out to be the most profitable.

BT shares are so bombed out you could argue the only way is up.

But there’s more to it than that. Bankers tell me Saudi officials first contacted BT to learn more about the business earlier this year, before the covid-19 rout in the stock price.

BT is changing radically as an investment prospect.

From being a decent dividend payer with solid earnings growth potential, it now has to invest £12 billion laying a fibre network to reach more than 20 million homes.

That means not paying a divi for this year and slashing next year’s.

All that infrastructure will doubtless pay off in the coming decades, but for conventional fund managers seeking income growth every quarter, that’s a yawn.

Only those with far longer time horizons will be interested.

Hence, the likes of the Saudis, with their decades-long, strategic investment plans.

No doubt Canadian pension plans and wealthy family offices with future generations in mind have also been sniffing around as BT tries to move itself into a dull but safe infrastructure play.

Whether that will have an impact on the share price is another matter. Sadly, I fear the doldrums are likely to last for a long time yet.