BT Share Chat (BT.A)

Non-Executive, what does a Non-Exec do apart from take money and gamble I wonder..... How much money have they made for the company in the last 3 months I wonder......

Unclebuck, can you here the managers ok, you know, while they speak to you from their bunkers with their face masks on, have they fitted you out with PPE or just told you to wash your hands and sneeze in to your elbow and sleeves and you will be OK routing round in peoples houses with their dogs jumping all over you ? . Is everyone telling you they are a health worker or key worker so they can get priority ? , it must have been bad enough when a fault occurred before a big football match, when they used to play, but now people are using it to get food and benefits and that, how are you managing in the mental health department, are you managing to stay sane?
Good luck to you all.

Courtesy of Trappy2 over on the ADVFN board....BT has won a legal application to restart a decade-old court case in the hope of clawing back more than £90m in VAT the telco claims it overpaid to HMRC from 1978 onwards. Mr Justice Fancourt lifted a legal stay on a High Court case against HMRC this morning over taxes paid on bad debt relief. The disputed sum is equal to just over 2 per cent of BT's operating profits for fiscal year 2019 [PDF, page 109]. With the nationwide novel coronavirus shutdown certain to have a severe effect on the entire British economy, a big dollop of tax (free) cash would be very welcome at the one-time state monopoly. Way back in 2010, BT asked HMRC to repay £91.8m in what it said was overpaid VAT. This VAT was paid by BT on so-called bad debt relief; a tax break for debts that weren't repaid by other companies that owed it the cash. BT claims that the law wrongly said at the time that debtors had to be forced into insolvency before the VAT could be clawed back. HMRC refused to stump up so BT took the taxman to court, with HMRC lawyers summarising BT's case to Mr Justice Fancourt in written submissions: "BT claims that HMRC have wrongly retained monies from BT by way of VAT in breach of EU law and/or statutory duty and/or due to BT's mistake of law or fact, which has enriched HMRC unjustly and/or has caused BT to have lost use of the monies so paid from 1 January 1978." Over the following decade, BT managed to start two parallel cases against HMRC: one in the First-Tier Tribunal (FTT), a specialised tax court, and a common-law claim in the High Court proper. The FTT case, a so-called "statutory appeal" wended its way right up the judicial mountain to the Court of Appeal. Normally one or the other case would have been struck out altogether, but what allowed the FTT case to go ahead was an order staying the High Court case until "30 days after final determination of any appeal from the FTT". An evidently frustrated HMRC made a legal application in 2017 to strike out BT's FTT case, an application that is still somewhere in the labyrinthine tax tribunal system. Impatient and wanting what it sees as its cash, BT asked the High Court last August to lift the stay on its case there. Lifting the stay this morning in a telephone hearing, Mr Justice Fancourt commented: "The appeal is currently stayed. And will not be progressed in any event until a decision has been given on HMRC's strike-out application."

PURCHASE OF 66,433 SHARES @118.00p

https://www.lse.co.uk/rns/BT.A/director-pdmr-shareholding-v3esgk2112q2lwh.html

here, here.

We are behind you Openreach engineers. Keep up the good work guys and gals.

Cymbals go clang, clang clang, clang clang clang clang. Bore off.

“Barclays said, seeing a rebasing as “increasingly likely” and forecasting a cut to 5p from 7.7p per share"

My understanding of that was that before Barclays believed the dividend would be cut to 7.7p

But now they think it’ll be cut to 5p

Per annum...

Toff

"“BT’s uncovered dividend remains the elephant in the room – given rising competitive pressures, rising capex, likely elevated pension contributions from 2021, material COVID-19 and macro uncertainty,” Barclays said, seeing a rebasing as “increasingly likely” and forecasting a cut to 5p from 7.7p per share."

https://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/916102/bt-dividend-cut-an--obvious--option-as-telcos--not-immune--from-coronavirus-916102.html

I've pasted a comment from the article above and don't quite understand what it's saying. The comment, ” Barclays said, seeing a rebasing as “increasingly likely” and forecasting a cut to 5p from 7.7p per share", makes no sense to me. Bt's full year dividend is 15.4p, so where does the 7.7p come from?
Makes me wonder if the analyst knows what he's talking about, if he doesn't even know what BT's dividend is.

Tof. You keep making predictions, building yourself up on them, telling three rest of us how clever you are, then ask the question “ where were will it stop”
Do you expect the rest of us to answer for you.
Trenners. So how many of those who left have gold plated pensions in place with crown backing ?
‘‘Tis not the fault of an employee if the employer offers a good pension package when they joined, no body forced BT to offer it did they. It is also not the pensioners or current employees fault there is a deficit, it’s BTs they are the ones who effectively took a payment holiday not the employee’s. At least BT are prepared to for fill there pension commitment unlike other companies who have totally shafted there pensioners and employee’s, casting them adrift while lining the pockets of the owners or directors.

Thing is Toff - there is a huge amount of dead wood sitting inside BT waiting for their final salary pensions to mature. And of course those final salary pensions have caused a huge pension deficit that diverts shareholder money.

I worked there (as a consultant) for 4 years and those BT employees who were bright and forward thinking - who didn't stay very long and were therefore not trapped by the pension fund - went off to get great jobs elsewhere and the rest of the lifers just plodded on.

BT (we joked) stood for Bring Twenty or Bus Trip because that's the number of often unnecessary employees who would attend customer meetings!

In principle - this company should.be flying ..... In practice - it's.plodding (like the vast majority of the people within it)

Trenners

Faultsman, Completely agree with you. They work so hard from home to ensure that the never ending stream of texts and e-mails asking why the job has not yet been completed continue as normal. Oh as well as "why was your van stopped here for 5 minutes" checking the tracker!

A painful spectacle - BT marching south yet again. All recent gains lost. Trading at the same level as when the ftse was at 5000.

The southerly momentum is overwhelming.
Will the rot ever stop.

Toff

See I told you they would cut it.

Just getting in early before the band wagon jumpers get here, please note the date and time for reference.

By the way, I see the frightful bore is still clapping his symbols like the Duracell rabbit, what a dullard.

They will lose millions:: but void the season and Leeds won’t get promoted:: hilarious xx

Lamtree - "I dont want want the season frozen with no relegation as I've waited years to see west ham relegated."

West ham are regularly relegated, so the wait couldn't of been too long lol

TLW

A dividend cut wouldn’t necessarily be seen as negative. Given debt, capex and the pension deficit the market would most likely see it as prudent. In fact I believe it would bolster the shareprice.

Not only that the dividend needs to be in line with the shareprice. A cut to 7p would save BT about £600 million and still yield a respectable 6 ish percent.

Dividends above 7-8 percent should raise a red flag, unless it’s a cyclical business. They’re either unsustainable or they signal a company in distress.
The dividend yield is one of the vital readings in stock trading. And one which can sometimes tell you of a company is flatlining or on life support.

Toff

yep,all doing their bit to keep Tate & Lyle and PG Tips access record sales.

I would like to pay tribute to the Openreach Engineers that are out in the streets fixing the lines and doing what they do, Im talking about Engineers here, not the Managers that are at home doing important stuff like tidying the house, polishing shoes, eating far to much food getting even fatter.

boycotting anything Chinese if you research what they actually produce in terms of not just products but components will leave you with a very empty house...and a very quiet one too.Better buy a horse and dump the car. :)

I don't understand why BT, who sell next gen call centre products to other companies, can't mobilise their call centre team to work remotely.

More doom and gloom ahead according to this article.
https://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/916102/bt-dividend-cut-an--obvious--option-as-telcos--not-immune--from-coronavirus-916102.html

Furthermore, some analysts are predicting from their charts that markets in general will suffer another 25% cut at the end of this week.

It goes without saying that I intend to boycott anything Chinese from this point onwards.

"The way I read that is premier league to lose millions not sky and BT . If they can't provide the goods then bt and sky don't pay."

I pointed this out to Toff only last week. SKY & BT have the Premier League by the balls to the tune of £762 million, plus Leeds Utd and WBA have a very good case to sue for £200 million each club if the powers that be decide to null and void the season through potential lost revenue, if they're not promoted to the EPL. This is why I believe the season will to be completed and matches will be televised to meet the contracts of SKY and BT.

The way I read that is premier league to lose millions not sky and BT . If they can't provide the goods then bt and sky don't pay. They are in breach of contract. On a different note another prime example of fund managers blinkered approach to the stock market this morning . Iag up 7% when they have no business only liabilities I.e. their planes parked on runways costing them thousands soon no doubt to be moved to the desert where it's free to park . Bt up a pathetic 2% on a ridiculously low sp who are running a strong robust profitable business . The investment bods should be flocking to buy into a safe haven not gambling on a dead duck.

Dear Lamtree, I’ve waited an age to see my team lift that trophy as well

I dont want want the season frozen with no relegation as I've waited years to see west ham relegated.