31st Oct 2013 12:45
LONDON (Alliance News) - BT Group PLC Wednesday reaffirmed its outlook and raised its interim dividend after it posted roughly flat pretax profit and revenue in the half year ended September 30.
The telecommunications company posted revenue of GBP8.940 billion, just off from GBP8.997 billion in the previous year. Revenue was impacted by regulatory price reductions, although this was largely offset by a strong performance from the company's Retail Consumer business, BT said.
Pretax profit was GBP1.204 billion, slightly up from GBP1.166 billion in the previous year.
BT Retail revenues were up 2%, driven by a 17% growth in broadband and television revenue following the launch of BT Sport. BT Sport has 2 million retail customers, BT said. The new service had a positive impact in fixed line, broadband and TV customers in the quarter. BT added 156,000 retail broadband customers, 195,000 retail fibre broadband customers, and 70,000 TV customers.
"BT Sport has made a confident start and is already delivering for viewers," Chief Executive Officer Gavin Patterson said in a statement. "More than two million of our customers are signed up to it and our wholesale contract with Virgin Media means its available for around four million homes in total."
In the company's Openreach segment, revenue declined by 1% as regulatory price changes had a negative impact of around GBP70 million, although this was partially offset by growth in the fibre broadband revenue, which more than doubled. The company said that it had seen particularly strong uptake in its fibre networks during the second quarter, and that its fibre network now passes more than 17 million premises.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation was GBP2.90 billion, down from GBP2.94 billion, reflecting investment in the new BT Sport service, BT said.
BT proposed an interim dividend of 3.4p, up 13% from 3.0p in the previous year. Earnings per share rose to 11.9 pence from 11.5 pence.
BT shares were trading up 2.7% at 379.55 pence on Thursday afternoon.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
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