BT takes over Italian Albacom

British telecoms operator BT http://www.bt.com has taken over the Italian telecom company Albacom, in which it previously had a 26 per cent stake. As the Financial Times (FT) http://www.ft.com reports, BT announced today that it had bought the remaining 74 per cent holding from its three joint venture partners - Eni, the Italian energy group, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro and Mediaset - for at least 116 million euros. According to BT, there is a chance it may have to pay more if Albacom exceeds certain performance targets, but the final price would not exceed four times earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation in the year to 2009.