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(Alliance News) - BT Group PLC on Thursday reported quarterly revenue and earnings growth, and said it has plans in place to minimise disruption from strike action.
Shares in the FTSE 100-listed telecommunications firm were down 5.0% at 167.36 pence in London on Thursday morning.
Revenue for the three months to June 30 inched up 1% to GBP5.13 billion from GBP5.07 billion year-on-year. This was "due to improved pricing and trading in Consumer and Openreach," BT said, offset to some extent by "challenging market conditions" hitting large corporate customers in Enterprise and Global.
Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation advanced 2% to GBP1.90 billion from GBP1.87 billion, but pretax profit fell 10% to GBP482 million from GBP536 million. BT said this was due to increased depreciation offsetting Ebitda growth.
"BT Group has made a good start to the year; we're accelerating our network investments and performing well operationally. Despite ongoing challenges in our enterprise businesses, we returned to revenue and Ebitda growth in the quarter," said Chief Executive Philip Jansen.
The firm said it implemented price rises to support investment in the network and offset cost inflation.
Meanwhile, BT said it has plans to place to minimise disruption when members of the Communication Workers Union strike on Friday and Monday.
BT and Openreach workers are to stage two 24-hour strikes in a dispute over pay. It will be the first strike action at BT Group since 1987 and the first national call centre workers' strike, said the union earlier this month, adding that 40,000 workers were involved in the dispute.
Jansen said: "The modernisation of BT Group remains on track. We are delivering and notwithstanding the current economic uncertainty we remain confident in our outlook for this financial year."
By Lucy Heming; lucyheming@alliancenews.com
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