The latest Investing Matters Podcast episode featuring Jeremy Skillington, CEO of Poolbeg Pharma has just been released. Listen here.
God, give me strength. It's utterly incessant, isn't it? See you all in 3 months. I'm giving myself a clean break from this madhouse. Talk about a sylus stuck the groove.
"While you are rejoicing guys how would you feel if the old chap had topped himself? He was down in the dumps with BT.
Nothing nice about this at all."
Bertarm - Relax, the man has been cancelled. That's why his posts have been removed. I have avoided visiting this BB for weeks on end, because he was becoming a one man infestation. There was little in the way of reasoned argument, only incessant emtional vitriol, insults and vile invective. As others have pointed out he will inevitably return, reincarnated, and when he does I shall, once again, stop visiting this BB. In the meantime I'm hoping a semblance of sanity returns to the posters and posts.
Deep joy.
If someone says 'NO BID' it does not infer that they would prefer there not to be a bid. I would love to see a bid, but think it most unlikely. Can't see Drahi mounting one with his indebtedness, whilst my contacts in Bonn believe any attempt to takeover BT would potentially drag them into a political minefield, with no clear outcome in sight. However, it doesn't rule out private equity, but they, like DT, will see any attempt to acquire BT as both politically untenable and unpalatable.
NO BID
I used to read this BB on a daily basis. No more. I don't need to provide a rationale. The reason will be obvious to anyone with an iota of common sense. Adieu.
Happily reinvested, as I have done since Day 1, and will continue to do so.
Better than anticipated inflation figures?
This will go the same way as their foray into bricks and mortar stores. Cash rich, yes, but infallible, no.
Totally concur, Fleccy. It's a non event.
IOT
I'm not sure Ofcom can do anything about the price rises - it's just paying lip service to the rising clamour of cost of living related complaints. After all the deal BT has struck in exchange for accelerating its fibre and 5G roll out (and thereby enhancing telecoms infrastructure across the UK) is set in stone. For Ofcom and the government to renege on that arrangement would expose them to litigation on an industrial scale.
Fleccy "My internet is still working, as I assume yours is, so I wouldn't even notice BT are on strike if it wasn't in the press."
My point exactly. If the internet went down across the board, then, yes, I would argue the strike is having an impact. As it isn't any action being taken is of little or no consequence to the public and business in general. To my mind it doesn't even register a faint flicker on the Richter scale of industrial action. To the strikers 'Best of Luck' with your reduced pay packets. I wish I had the luxury to throw good money away.
PO3C - "Better to hand over 50 quid a month than lose your whole salary. Or don't you understand the plan?"
That's tells me that you have lost all perspective. Let's just say the union manages to cripple BT (unlikely) and force its hand to increase wages/salaries even higher. What do you think will be the outcome of that? Well I can tell you that, quite simply, it will result in a draconian cull of staff numbers to fund the pay increase. You should bear in mind that throughout economic history periods of high inflation have always ended in a recession with jobs being lost en masse. We are heading for one right now and believe you me the recently bouyant labour market will sink like a stone. At the end of the coming recession you will be grateful you still have a job, unless, of course, you have decided to commit hari kari in the interim.
PO3C - "The union need to get smart with this action. Set up a fund and remove key staff from their positions indefinitely and pay them from the fund. Everybody puts 50 quid a month into the fund and works to rule. The public will then know there is a strike."
I'm sure that by adopting this proposed tactic you are pretty much guaranteeing the end of their careers at BT. They may be key, but no-one, at the end of the day, is indispensible. After all life goes on.
"VM & John Malone are there to disrupt incumbent." At the age of 81 I'm not sure that there is too long left for John Malone to disrupt anything. I wish him good health and longevity, but I suspect his powers and energy are diminishing with age. Mine certainly are and I'm 10 years younger than him.
1msn "got to say this a very poor show."
What else did you expect on an XD day?
Fleccy - "But he is delivering; The FTTP/5G rollout is accelerating, they're ahead of schedule on the cost savings, and the strategy is heading in the right direction, also ahead of schedule. BT sport has gone, it's spun off into a different company, and Warner will eventually buy out BT completely.
Jansen has to balance OFCOM, competition, litigation, strategy, etc. It's accepted that BT CEO is amongst the hardest CEO positions in the UK, personally I think he's doing a really good job."
Fleccy - I fully concur. Running BT is without doubt one of the most onerous tasks in the FTSE 100. Having to navigate a minefield of regulations and governmental pressures with both hands often tied behind their backs makes a mockery of running a private company. It is without doubt one of the toughest gigs in the UK and anyone who says that the company can run itself (as has been cited recently) clearly lives in la la land and has little or no grasp of reality.
BT has returned to revenue growth for the first time in five years, helped by consumer price rises, but shares in Britain’s biggest telecoms group fell heavily amid a weak performance from its enterprise business.
Group adjusted profit rose 2 per cent to £1.9 billion in the three months to the end of June, BT’s first quarter, on revenues up 1 per cent to £5.1 billion.
Mobile service and fixed revenues in BT’s consumer business, which includes its EE mobile network, improved as they returned close to levels before the start of the pandemic.
The growth was helped by BT’s annual contractual price rise in April — 5.4 per cent inflation plus 3.9 per cent — and strong revenues at BT Sport, its broadcast division, including the WBC title fight between Tyson Fury and Dillian Whyte at Wembley in April.
Philip Jansen, BT’s chief executive, said the price rises supported investment in BT’s network and offset cost inflation, and it planned price increases again next year. “We’re in a very, very challenging environment economically . . . It’s really, really important that BT continues to be able to invest in the future,” he said.
Jansen, 58, added: “You’ve got to look at the metrics in the round. If you look at it in total, high satisfaction, high net promoter scores, very low churn and absolute value-for-money scores are in great shape, because we’re providing a key service at around £1 a day.”
BT is investing £15 billion in Openreach, its infrastructure division, which is taking full-fibre broadband to 25 million premises by 2026, which will improve internet speeds and reliability. Jansen said BT’s network was the “only real game in town for speed, quality and service”. Openreach’s full-fibre network reaches more than 8 million UK homes and businesses. BT anticipates increasing its annual build from 2.6 million premises last year to about 3.5 million this year. Meanwhile, EE’s 5G network covers more than 55 per cent of the population.
Jansen said that “notwithstanding the current economic uncertainty”, BT was confident of hitting its full-year forecasts of revenue growth and at least £7.9 billion of adjusted earnings.
On a statutory basis, reported profit before tax fell 10 per cent to £482 million due to “increased depreciation”.
The 20 per cent growth in profits at BT’s consumer business was offset by a 27 per cent drop in its enterprise division, serving corporate customers. Jansen said enterprise sales were weakened by the loss of a Virgin Mobile wholesale contract.
Despite the return to growth and reiterating its outlook, shares in BT fell by 14¼p, or 8.1 per cent, to 161¾p.
Jerry Dellis, an analyst at Jefferies, said “the promise of a second-half enterprise recovery without greater clarity on the plan and management’s ability to deliver this against the weak economic backdrop leaves investors lacking adequate visibility at this stage”.
The challenging trading conditions come as BT faces its first national industrial