For anyone at BT, 2001 was a year that will not be forgotten quickly. For most, it will be because of significant events such as the rights issue and the demerger. For me it was the year we sold our property portfolio.

Because of the size of the company, when it does something big, it really is big. With 6,700 individual properties, this was probably the biggest single property transaction in terms of the number of properties sold in the UK. It realised £2.38bn for BT.