BT has announced that group turnover went up by only 1%
for the year ended 31 March, although “new wave” turnover, which
includes broadband sales, rose by 32%.
Total group turnover was £18.6bn and new wave turnover was
£4.5bn. Pre-tax profits rose 4% to just over £2bn.
BT’s Global Services arm generated its first full-year operating
profit, at £7m, an improvement of £112m.
Sir Christopher Bland, BT chairman, said, “The financial results
for the full year reflect the continuing strong trends that we have
seen during the year. New wave revenues have grown by 32% and now
represent nearly a quarter of our business.”
BT chief executive Ben Verwaayen, said, “We have more than
doubled the number of broadband DSL connections in the year, hit
the five million target a year early, and are increasing broadband
speeds by up to four times.
“Our global networked IT services business is building strongly.
We have successfully completed the acquisitions of Albacom, Infonet
and Radianz, extending our global reach still further.
“Even after excluding the effect of acquisitions, our Global
Services revenues grew by 10% in the fourth quarter.”
Samad Masood, an analyst at Ovum Holway, said revenue from BT’s
£2bn NHS outsourcing deal would feed into future figures, but that
BT would also have to find similar deals to its recent £1.5bn
Reuters outsourcing agreement to maintain momentum in its services
business.