C&W poised to return £1.5bn to shareholders

Nice little windfall with Christmas on the horizon...

Cable and Wireless looks set to return a £1.5bn share of its £4bn cash reserve to shareholders. Weekend reports in the Observer indicate the telecoms company will respond to pressure from investors to hand out the capital through a special dividend or share buy-back. It will not be until later this week that shareholders will learn exactly what the company's chief executive, Graham Wallace, plans to do. It is also expected that they will press him for details on the company's expansion plans. The cash pile has been accumulated after a number of C&W disposals, including Australian mobile business Opus.