BT has signed a global managed services agreement with British American Tobacco.

The deal, valued at €77 million, will see BT install an IP-based wide area network infrastructure spanning nearly 1,000 sites in 119 countries.

It will include remote access, security, and third-party supplier management services.

BAT, the world’s second largest quoted tobacco company, said in a statement that the new network will help it to prioritise traffic and reduce the total ownership costs of its communications estate.

Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) manufacturers like BAT are facing increasing pressures in demanding and competitive markets.

Kim McMann, BT’s CPG President, added: “Global collaboration is one of the keys to success. This requires a global technology infrastructure that has great depth and breadth, running state of the art services offering greatest possible speed, security, reliability and flexibility.”

This is the second major deal that BAT has signed with a European telco this year.

In April, the company signed up T-Systems to move into the cloud.

The news is a further boost to BT's struggling global services division, which this week welcomed new CEO Luis Alvarez to the helm.