29th Oct 2015 07:09
LONDON (Alliance News) - BT Group PLC said Thursday it is on track to deliver its outlook for its full financial year and increased its interim dividend, as it reported a rise in pretax profit for its first half.
BT reported a pretax profit of GBP1.27 billion for the six months to end-September, up from GBP1.11 billion a year before, as revenue rose to GBP8.82 billion from GBP8.74 billion.
The company proposed an interim dividend of 4.4 pence, up from 3.9p a year before.
For the second quarter alone, the company reported a pretax profit of GBP642 million, up from GBP563 million a year before, on revenue of GBP4.46 billion, up from GBP4.44 billion.
BT cited a strong performance from its fibre broadband, as well as good demand from its new BT Sport Europe channel, which helped drive up BT TV customers in the second quarter.
On Wednesday, BT's GBP12.5 billion acquisition of mobile operator EE Ltd was provisionally cleared by the UK Competition and Markets Authority without requiring any remedies to gain approval.
At the time of its full-year results in May, BT had said it expects to achieve "modest" growth in adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation for the current year, despite anticipating some additional costs including the launch of its UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League football programming in the year.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
Copyright 2015 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
BT