STOCKS TO WATCH BT disciples hope trial is its last supper in Milan

MILAN is home to Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper, the painting of Jesus’s shocked disciples as they are t old t hat one will betray him.

BT investors fear similar scenes of alarm when the city hosts a crunch court case next week.

Public prosecutors will begin along-awaited criminal trial against the teleco ms giant’ s Italian division and 20 defendants, including two current employees, over its false accounting scandal.

The affair stunned onlookers when it erupted in 2017, under the watch of flowing-locked former chief executive Gavin Patterson, who had to book a £530 million charge to cover the fallout.

His successor, Philip Jansen, has since scaled back the Italian business, selling off two businesses last month.

The case is unlikely to move the dial on the share price, but risks reputation al damage to the former state monopoly.

The company will hope the proceedings draw a line under the matter, and don’t cause any more mamma mia moments.

CITY investment into the music industry has been in vogue of late, in part due to the streaming boom and the fervour sparked by Hipgnosis Songs Fund’s glitzy buying spree.

Another listed specialist, One Media i P Group, recently raised £6 million from investors and has set up a scheme, Harmony IP, which gives rights holders advanced access to the future earnings of their intellectual property by purchasing a portion of their rights upfront.

Word reaches me that the AIM- listed minnow has just acquired royalties for a clutch of early Take That songs from DJ and producer Ian Levine.

With live music silenced, expect songwriters and artists to be looking more carefully at sources of income this year.