BT Group plc (BT.L) today announces its results for the fourth quarter and year to 31 March 2011.
Ian Livingston, Chief Executive, commenting on the results, said:
“We have delivered profits and free cash flow ahead of expectations for the year, while making significant investment in the business for the future. Free cash flow has nearly trebled compared with two years ago.
“We have consolidated our position as the leading provider of broadband in the UK with our highest quarterly share of DSL broadband net additions for eight years. BT Global Services order intake was up 10% at £7.3bn and it has turned cash flow positive a year ahead of plan. Openreach saw growth in its copper line base in the year, reversing historic trends. Our roll out of super-fast broadband is one of the most rapid in the world, passing an average of 80,000 additional premises each week and we have plans to roughly double the speed of our fibre-to-the-cabinet based service in 2012.
“We expect to continue to grow our profits and free cash flow whilst investing to return BT to growth. These results show we are making progress, but we are well aware there remains a lot more to do.”
Key points:
– Full year results in line with or ahead of our outlook for the year
– Revenue of £20bn in line with our outlook, underlying revenue excluding transit down 3% in the year
– Operating cost savings of £1.1bn in the year, ahead of our outlook of around £900m
– Net debt reduced to £8.8bn, in line with our outlook, after pension deficit payments of £1.0bn in the year
– Free cash flow1,2 of £2.2bn, ahead of our outlook and nearly trebled from two years ago
– Proposed final dividend of 5.0p, up 9%, giving a full year dividend of 7.4p, up 7%
– BT Global Services operating cash flow positive a year ahead of plan at £119m
– IAS 19 pension deficit of £1.4bn (net of tax), down £4.3bn in the year
– DSL broadband net additions of 252,000 in the quarter, of which BT-s retail market share was 64%
Outlook:
We expect
– Underlying revenue excluding transit to be in the range of down 2% to flat in 2012 and to grow by up to 2% in 2013
– Adjusted EBITDA to grow in 2012 and to be above £6.0bn in 2013
– Adjusted free cash flow to be above 2011 level in both 2012 and 2013
The fourth quarter and full year 2011 results presentation for analysts and investors will be held in London at 9.00am today and a simultaneous webcast will be available at www.bt.com/results.
The BT Group plc Annual Report & Form 20-F is expected to be published on 27 May 2011. The Annual General Meeting of BT Group plc will be held at Old Billingsgate, London on 13 July 2011. Results for the first quarter to 30 June 2011 are expected to be announced on 28 July 2011.
BT is one of the world-s leading providers of communications solutions and services operating in over 170 countries. Its principal activities include the provision of networked IT services globally; local, national and international telecommunications services to our customers for use at home, at work and on the move; broadband and internet products and services and converged fixed/mobile products and services. BT consists principally of four lines of business: BT Global Services, BT Retail, BT Wholesale and Openreach.
British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group plc and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT Group. BT Group plc is listed on stock exchanges in London and New York.
For more information, visit www.btplc.com.
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