Highlights of the BT performance include:
- Revenue of £5,303 million, up 4 per cent
- EBITDA before specific items1 and leaver costs of £1,429 million, down 1 per cent
- BT Global Services EBITDA before leaver costs of £119 million, down 36 per cent
Ian Livingston, Chief Executive, commenting on the second quarter’s results, said: “Three out of our four business units, BT Retail, BT Wholesale and Openreach are delivering on or ahead of target. But profits in BT Global Services are simply not good enough and we are taking decisive action to put matters right. We have appointed Hanif Lalani as the new CEO of BT Global Services and he will continue to grow the business while reducing the cost base.
Demand for our BT Global Services proposition remains strong, revenue grew strongly in the quarter and the pipeline is healthy. What we have to do now is translate revenue growth into better profitability.
We continue to expect BT group revenue to grow for the full year. However because of the reduction in profitability in BT Global Services, group EBITDA2 is likely to show a small decline in the current financial year.”