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LONDON, May 7 (Reuters) - Britain's biggest telecoms group
BT has suspended its dividend until 2021/22, one of the
biggest on the London stock exchange, and pulled its financial
outlook in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The company said the cash saving would bolster it through
the expected financial crash that will lead to lower revenue
from sports customers, reduced business activity and more
cautious spending from multinational customers.
On the same day that rivals Telefonica and Liberty
Global announced the merger of their British units to
build a stronger challenger, BT also set out plans for a new
5-year programme to modernise the business.
The new programme will cost 1.3 billion pounds ($1.6
billion) to achieve and will deliver annualised gross benefits
of 2 billion pounds by March 2025 as it switches off many legacy
programmes and uses new technologies to improve.
"Of course, Covid-19 is affecting our business, but the full
impact will only become clearer as the economic consequences
unfold over the next 12 months," Chief Executive Philip Jansen
said. "Due to Covid-19, BT is not providing guidance for
2020/21, at this time."
It said it expected to resume dividend payments at 7.7 pence
per share. In 2018/19 it paid a full-year dividend of 15.4
pence.
Jansen has been tasked with building nationwide gigabit
fixed and mobile networks for the future while trying to shore
up revenue and earnings in the short term.
The company said on Thursday it was working to build its
fibre to the home network to 20 million premises by mid to late
2020s, on the assumption that it secures the right regulatory
approval.
It said its 2019/20 results were in line with expectations.
($1 = 0.8093 pounds)
(Reporting by Kate Holton; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
