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BT To Name Lowth As New Finance Chief

BT Group (LSE: BT-A.L - news) is to hire Simon Lowth as its new finance chief, handing the former BG executive a rapid return to the top ranks of British business following the oil company's takeover.

Sky News has learnt that Mr Lowth will be named as Tony Chanmugam's successor in a statement to the London Stock Exchange (Other OTC: LDNXF - news) on Friday.

His appointment will come just weeks after BG Group (Other OTC: BRGYY - news) completed its sale to Royal Dutch Shell (Xetra: R6C1.DE - news) in the oil industry's biggest-ever takeover.

Mr Lowth is expected to join BT in the summer, with his arrival coming at an important time for the former telecoms monopoly.

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Ofcom, the communications industry regulator, said last month that BT's broadband rivals - which include Sky Plc (LSE: BSY.L - news) , the owner of Sky News - should have access to its vast network of telephone poles and ducts, while stopping short of recommending a formal separation of its Openreach division.

Mr Chanmugam, who has held BT's top finance role since 2008, is a prominent and popular figure in the City, and has helped to oversee a significant improvement in the company's financial performance during that period.

Egon Zehnder, the executive search firm which led the hunt for Mr Chanmugam's replacement, was instructed to find an executive with substantial experience of large, intensively regulated businesses.

Before joining BG in 2013, Mr Lowth was the finance director of AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN - news) , the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceuticals group.

He also sits on the board of Standard Chartered (BSE: 580001.BO - news) , the emerging markets-focused bank.

At BT, he will play a key role in the integration of EE, the mobile phone group whose takeover was completed earlier this year.

The acquisition of EE propelled BT back into the UK mobile market, adding more than 25 million subscribers at a time when media and telecoms services providers are increasingly converging.

Under a new operating structure announced by Gavin Patterson, BT's chief executive, a new UK-focused business and public sector division will operate alongside another focused on international customers; a mobile-only unit will include EE, while another will provide broader consumer services.

A wholesale division has been established which includes Openreach, the group which controls Britain's fixed-line network.

Sky, TalkTalk and Vodafone are among the companies which have called for more radical action from Ofcom in relation to Openreach's ownership.

BT, which competes for telecoms and pay-television customers with Sky plc, the owner of Sky News, saw its shares close on Thursday at 446.5p, giving it a market value of just over £45bn.

BT declined to comment.