(Alliance News) - FTSE 100 telecoms firm BT Group PLC may cut its dividend sometime in the future to fund its fibre build programme across the country, the Financial Times reported Wednesday.
Chair Jan du Plessis said at the company's annual general meeting that he remained confident that BT could meet the payment for its current financial year to the end of March.
However Plessis said that the company's ambition to connect 15 million homes to full fibre lines by the midpoint of the next decade would require BT to consider how to fund that build.
Options put forward by the chair includes reducing capital expenditure, more cost savings and increased borrowing to fund fibre expansion.
"We will also consider reducing the dividend," Plessis said, and added that such a move could happen in a "year or two in the future" if the board believes it is in BT's long term interest.
In May, BT for its recently ended financial year declared a total payout of 15.40 pence, unchanged from the year before and said it expected to hold the dividend at the same level for its current financial year.
https://www.ft.com/content/68878c24-a2fe-11e9-974c-ad1c6ab5efd1
Shares in BT were down 0.8% at 194.28 pence on Wednesday.
BT (BT.A)