LONDON (Bloomberg) — Cable & Wireless Plc shares rose after the UK’s second-biggest phone company said it was maintaining its strategy and doesn’t have immediate plans to sell any units after a newspaper said it might split itself in two.“Any discussion of spinning off our businesses is premature,” the Bracknell, England-based company said yesterday in an e-mailed statement.

The shares rose after Cable & Wireless said it is focused on building its UK and international units and the strategy is “progressing well”.

The Observer said yesterday that Cable & Wireless may split itself into British and international units and sell them to private-equity groups or competitors.

“We are in the early stages in terms of both businesses and there is more work to do,” the company said in the statement.

Cable & Wireless shares rose 4.4 pence, or 2.4 percent, to 185.6 pence in London. The shares rose 32 percent last year.

On April 27, Citigroup analyst Michael Williams raised his price target for Cable & Wireless shares to 240 pence from 190 pence because of the company’s ability to “maximise and unlock value” from its assets.

Williams in the note wrote that he is confident that Cable & Wireless management will “leave no stone unturned in the pursuit of hidden value”.

Cable & Wireless is seeking opportunities in markets overseas as growth in the UK for traditional voice services has slowed.

The company in September said it would consider acquisitions as part of a strategy to focus on faster-growing markets. The company forecast improving margins at the company’s international businesses because of sales growth and lower costs.

Chairman Richard Lapthorne and managers John Pluthero and Harris Jones favour a split of the international and UK businesses, the Observer said, citing an unidentified person it said was familiar with the plan.

A sale would have to assign Cable & Wireless a value of at least 228 pence a share, or the company’s senior managers would lose a $200 million payout, the newspaper said.

Citigroup’s Williams wrote before the Observer story that a possible break-up of the company would make sense only after the UK business has improved and could function on a stand-alone basis. A break-up could be completed within two years, he added.