Further speculation on the future of BT’s enterprise play aimed at international clients emerged in UK media, with the operator’s arm serving global businesses said to be on the market.

A report in newspaper The Mail on Sunday claimed BT CEO Allison Kirkby was determined to shift the asset and was open to offers for the division, which is the part of BT Business serving multinational customers.

Potential suitors include private equity companies, with some reportedly showing an interest. The newspaper’s sources also mooted Verizon, Amazon or Microsoft as possible buyers.

A move to offload the unit would not be a complete surprise given Kirkby’s comments during its annual results presentation in May, when she stated BT was exploring “options to optimise our global business”.

At the time, the executive outlined an ambition to simplify the company to focus on “connecting the UK” and continue measures to slash its overheads.

The unit apparently for sale used to be a standalone Global division, but was merged with BT Enterprise to form BT Business as part of a previous cost-cutting plan.

Speculation on the planned sell-off comes a week after Financial Times reported BT was working with advisers on the possible sale of BT Business’ Radianz financial services connectivity platform, which is part of its international offering.