C&W Sued Again

NEW YORK -- Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP has filed a class action lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, on behalf of all persons who purchased the publicly traded securities of Cable and Wireless plc ("Cable" or the "Company") (NYSE: CWP - News) between August 6, 1999 and December 6, 2002, inclusive (the "Class Period"), against defendants Cable and certain of its officers and directors. The case name and index number are Segal v. Sir Ralph Robbins, et al and (03CV0046-A). A copy of the complaint filed in this action is available from the Court, or can be viewed on Wolf Haldenstein's website at: http://www.whafh.com. Cable announced, in an August 6, 1999 press release that it had agreed to sell One 2 One, a British based mobile telecommunications operator, to Deutsche Telekom. The announced terms of the agreement detailed that Deutsche Telekom would pay 6.9 billion pounds sterling in cash for 100% of the equity ownership interest in One 2 One. Additionally, Deutsche Telekom would provide for the repayment of 237 million pounds of shareholder loans, and would assume nearly 1.5 billion pounds of third-party debt. The complaint alleges that those statements were materially false and misleading because they failed to reveal that an essential term of the One 2 One deal was a 1.5 billion pounds tax indemnification clause agreed to by Cable, and specifically, a trigger clause, involving a future downgrade of Cable's long-term debt rating below a predetermined level, which would trigger a 1.5 billion pounds cash commitment on behalf of Cable. Moody's investment service announced on December 6, 2002, that it would downgrade the long-term debt rating of Cable from Baa1 to Baa2. The Company then surprised the market in a press release that same day revealing that, resulting from the downgrade, the aforementioned "ratings trigger" was initiated. The announcement resulted in a 40 percent decline in the price of Cable's ADRs, from a closing price of $3.90 per ADR on December 6, 2002, to a close at $2.33 per ADR on December 9, 2002, on uncommonly high trading volume. Consequently, the Company filed a Form 6-K with the SEC on December 9, 2002 including a statement concerning the tax indemnification "ratings trigger" clause. If you are a member of the class described above, you may, not later than February 24, 2003, move the Court to serve as lead plaintiff of this case. A lead plaintiff is a representative party that acts on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation. In order to be appointed lead plaintiff, the Court must determine that the class member's claim is typical of the claims of other class members, and that the class member will adequately represent the class. Under certain circumstances, one or more class members may together serve as "lead plaintiff." Your ability to share in any recovery is not, however, affected by your decision whether or not to serve as a lead plaintiff.