BT Group plc (BT.L) today announced its results for the fourth quarter and year to 31 March 2016.
|
Fourth quarter to 31 March 2016 (incl. EE from 29 Jan) |
Year to 31 March 2016 (incl. EE from 29 Jan) |
||||
|
£m |
Change |
£m |
Change |
||
|
Revenue1 |
5,656 |
22% |
18,909 |
6% |
|
|
Change in underlying revenue2 excluding transit |
1.3% |
2.0% |
|||
|
EBITDA1 |
2,076 |
14% |
6,580 |
5% |
|
|
Profit before tax |
- adjusted1 |
1,145 |
11% |
3,473 |
9% |
|
- reported |
893 |
6% |
3,029 |
15% |
|
|
Earnings per share |
- adjusted1 |
10.2p |
2% |
33.2p |
5% |
|
- reported |
8.0p |
(5)% |
29.9p |
13% |
|
|
Full year proposed dividend |
14.0p |
13% |
|||
|
Normalised free cash flow3 |
1,519 |
£252m |
3,098 |
£268m |
|
|
Net debt |
9,845 |
£4,726m |
Gavin Patterson, Chief Executive, commenting on the results, said:
"This has been a landmark year for BT. We've completed our acquisition of EE, the UK's best 4G mobile network provider, we've passed more than 25m premises with fibre and we've also delivered a strong financial performance. We've met our outlook with our main revenue4 measure up 2.0%, the best performance for more than seven years. Our profit before tax1 was up a healthy 9%.
"Customers want to be online wherever they are and we will be there for them. Our multi-billion pound investment plans will see both fibre and 4G reach 95% of the UK and we won't stop there. The UK is a digital leader and our investment in ultrafast broadband will help it stay ahead.
"The integration of EE is going well and we now see the opportunity to deliver more synergies than we originally expected, and at a lower cost. And we're reorganising our business to better serve customers both in the UK and internationally.
"We've invested across the business and are seeing good results. Our BT Sport audiences are up 45 per cent this year following the launch of UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League content. BT Mobile has done well since its launch, building a customer base of over 400,000. And in the business market, we've seen very strong demand for our cyber security expertise with our security business growing by 24%.
"Customers are benefiting from our investments but we plan to do more when it comes to service, to meet customers' rising expectations. That's why Openreach is tackling missed appointments, why BT Consumer will be upgrading service levels to next day repair and why we've hired 900 engineers. We've also recruited more than 900 extra contact centre staff. This will enable us to return EE and BT Consumer contact centre work to the UK.
"Our strong overall performance for the year is reflected in our full year dividend, which is up 13%. Our results and the investments we're making position us well to continue to grow in the coming years. In light of our confidence we are setting out financial and dividend guidance for the next two years."
