2nd Aug 2019 08:04
(Alliance News) - FTSE 100-listed telecommunications firm BT Group PLC said Friday first quarter results were in line with expectations, with reported revenue and profit both struggling.
For the three months ended June, pretax profit narrowed 8.8% to GBP642 million from GBP704 million the year prior. This was after revenue fell 1.6% to GBP5.63 billion from GBP5.72 billion the year before.
Net debt rose to GBP17.81 billion from GBP11.23 billion the year prior.
Revenue performance was hurt by falls across all its major units, except telecommunications infrastructure subsidiary Openreach which generated a modest 1.0% rise to GBP1.27 billion. Its largest unit Consumer fell 0.8% to GBP2.55 billion, Enterprise declined 4.5% to GBP1.52 billion and the Global division down 5.4% to GBP1.09 billion.
"BT delivered results in line with our expectations for the quarter, with adjusted Ebitda declines in Consumer and Enterprise partly offset by growth in Global," BT Chief Executive Officer Philip Jansen said. "We are on track to meet our outlook for the full year."
During the period, adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation narrowed 1.0% to GBP1.96 billion from GBP1.8 billion the year before.
"In building a better BT for the future we need to be even more competitive," Jansen added. "We will continue to take decisive action, including on price, to further strengthen our customer propositions and market position, both to respond to any short-term market pressures and to capitalise on longer-term opportunities."
"On network investment, we welcome the Government's ambition for full fibre broadband across the country and we are confident we will see further steps to stimulate investment," Jansen continued. "We are ready to play our part to accelerate the pace of rollout, in a manner that will benefit both the country and our shareholders, and we are engaging with the Government and Ofcom on this."
Shares in BT were down 2.0% in early trading in London on Friday at 190.08 pence each.
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