BT Group Newsroom

BT delivered a solid start to the year, with continued strategic momentum

Thu, 23 Jul 2026 07:00:00 +0100

Results for the three months to 30 June 2026

Allison Kirkby, Chief Executive, commenting on the results, said:

“BT has made a solid start to the year. We are connecting more customers to our next-generation networks, and are increasingly the choice for mission-critical solutions, as we connect and protect the country and accelerate our transformation.

"Across Openreach and Consumer we achieved record new full fibre connections and take-up, resulting in fibre contributing to more than half of our broadband revenues for the first time. By investing in all our brands, and the services they offer, we’re continuing to grow our Consumer customer base. In Business, service revenue is stabilising, with excellent sales order growth from major customers. In this final year of the PSTN, our service revenue, excluding voice, grew in the quarter.

"We expanded 5G+ further to now reach 77% of the UK population and our full fibre build is on track to reach 25 million premises by the end of December. Internationally, our proposed joint venture with Verizon will create a scaled global connectivity platform and allow us to focus on our transformation in the UK.

“No-one is upgrading and investing in the country’s digital backbone at the scale and pace that BT is. We remain on track to deliver our targets, including cash flow of c£2.0bn this year and c£3.0bn by the end of the decade – as we create a better BT, for all of us.”

Strategic priorities delivering to plan:

FTTP footprint increased to 23.4m, an increase of 514k in the quarter, on track to achieve our 25m FTTP build target by December 2026
Record customer demand for Openreach FTTP with 574k net adds in the quarter; total premises connected 9.4m, bringing our market-leading take-up rate to 40%; Openreach broadband ARPU grew by 7% to £17.7, driven by higher FTTP take-up, speed mix and price increases
Openreach broadband lines fell by 192k; we continue to expect losses of c. 800k in the year
EE maintained its mobile leadership, winning P3’s Test Champion Award and topping the Reliability, Coverage and Performance categories; 5G+ population coverage rose to 77%, up from 73% last quarter
Record retail FTTP base growth, up 1.1m year-on-year to 4.8m, comprising 4.5m Consumer connections (54% of the broadband base) and 0.3m Business connections
Continued Consumer customer growth, up 1k in broadband, 13k in postpaid mobile and 9k in TV. Both our broadband and postpaid mobile churn remained stable year-on-year at 1.1% and 1.0% respectively despite competition as our fibre-first strategy continues to deliver
Consumer ARPU of £40.9 in broadband, down 2% year-on-year primarily due to declines in voice; £19.7 in postpaid mobile, up 2% year-on-year; Consumer fixed and mobile convergence increased to 26.8% from 26.6% last quarter and 25.5% last year; EE One Up rewards programme launched
Business service revenue stabilising, with strong sales order growth including new connectivity contracts signed with Scottish Water and Royal Mail
International JV with Verizon announced combining our operations to create a stronger scaled global connectivity business and marking a significant milestone in delivering BT Group's UK-focused strategy
Cost transformation delivered efficiencies across all units, with year-on-year reductions in network energy usage of 8%, total labour resource excluding International of 8% to 94k and in Openreach repair volumes of 21%
BT Group NPS increased to 30.7, up 3.6pts year-on-year, rebased for the exclusion of International

On track to achieve full year guidance:

Following the announcement in June of our agreement with Verizon to create a combined global business, the International CFU is now reported as a discontinued operation. The below metrics are reported on a continuing basis.

Revenue £4.3bn, flat year-on-year. Adjusted UK service revenue £3.8bn down 1%, as growth in broadband and Corporate and Public Sector in Business and customer base growth in Consumer were offset by declines in voice
Adjusted EBITDA£2.0bn, down 1% year-on-year and broadly flat excluding the impact of prior year one-offs, with lower broadband and voice margins offsetting strong cost transformation
Reported profit before tax of £505m, down 4% driven by higher finance costs offset by lower restructuring costs
Reconfirming all FY27 and multi-year financial outlook metrics as updated in June to reflect our continuing operations

_{¹Refer to page 2 for an explanation of how the 2025 comparatives have been re-presented}
_{n/m: comparison not meaningful}

Group financial guidance as updated in June to reflect our continuing operations

Discontinued operations

Following the announcement in June of our agreement with Verizon to create a combined global business, the International CFU is now reported as a discontinued operation. International adjusted revenue was £451m (Q1 FY26: £542m; of which the five businesses divested from International during FY26 generated £78m) and adjusted EBITDA was £29m (Q1 FY26: £21m).

Re-presentation of FY26 comparatives

FY26 comparative information has been re-presented to reflect that the International division is now reported as a discontinued operation; all financial metrics are presented on a continuing operations basis. Q1 FY26 comparative information for Business has also been re-presented to reflect this change (at Q1 FY26 International was reported as part of the Business CFU), together with revisions to segmental revenue presentation to better reflect the nature of services and trading relationships between CFUs.

Reconciliation to non-GAAP measures

Our commentary focuses on the trading results on an adjusted basis. This is consistent with the way that financial performance is measured by management and reported to the Board and the Executive Committee and assists in providing a meaningful analysis of the trading results of the group. In accordance with IFRS, we updated our financial reporting to recognise that the International CFU is a discontinued operation. Accordingly, all metrics below are presented on a continuing basis. Reported revenue and reported profit before tax are the equivalent unadjusted or statutory measures.

_{¹ FY26 comparative information has been re-presented to reflect that the International division is now reported as a discontinued operation; all financial metrics are presented on a continuing operations basis. Q1 FY26 comparative information has also been re-presented to reflect this change, together with revisions to segmental revenue to reflect the nature of services and trading relationships between CFUs.}
_{² Continuing profit before tax was £505m (Q1 FY26: £526m), discontinued loss before tax was £43m (Q1 FY26: £58m), equating to a total profit before tax of £462m (Q1 FY26: £468m).}

Glossary
ARPU	Average Revenue Per User
FTTP	Fibre To The Premises
NPS	Net Promoter Score, for the continuing group


Adjusted	Adjusted revenue is before specific items. Adjusted results are consistent with the way that financial performance is measured by management and assist in providing an additional analysis of the reporting trading results of the continuing group.
Adjusted UK service revenue	Adjusted UK service revenue comprises all UK revenue less UK equipment revenue. Some revenue from equipment is included within adjusted UK service revenue where this is sold as part of a managed services contract or where that equipment cannot be practicably separated from the underlying service.
Adjusted EBITDA	Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, before specific items, share of post tax profits/losses of associates and joint ventures and net finance expense for the continuing group.
Capital expenditure	Additions to property, plant and equipment and intangible assets in the period for the continuing group.
Convergence	Total households served by Consumer which have both a BT Group (any brand) fixed broadband and postpaid mobile connection present divided by total number of Consumer households, excluding voice fixed line.
Normalised free cash flow	For the continuing group free cash flow (net cash inflow from operating activities after net capital expenditure) after net interest paid, payment of lease liabilities, net cash flows from the sale of cash flows related to contract assets, monies received as prepayment for the sale of redundant copper, dividends received from non-current asset investments, associates and joint ventures, and net purchase or disposal of non-current asset investments, before pension deficit payments (including their cash tax benefit), payments relating to spectrum, and specific items. It excludes cash flows that are determined at a corporate level independently of ongoing trading operations such as dividends paid, share buybacks, acquisitions and disposals, repayment and raising of debt, cash flows relating to loans with joint ventures, and cash flows relating to the Building Digital UK demand deposit account which have already been accounted for within normalised free cash flow. For non-tax related items, other than for pension deficit payments, adjustments represent pre-tax cash flows and no allocation of tax refunded / (paid) relating to these adjustments has been included in or excluded from normalised free cash flow.
Specific items	Items that in management’s judgement need to be disclosed separately by virtue of their size, nature or incidence. In the current quarter these predominantly relate to restructuring charges and divestment-related items. In determining whether an event or transaction is specific, management considers quantitative as well as qualitative factors such as the frequency or predictability of occurrence.

Forward-looking statements – caution advised

Certain information included in this announcement is forward-looking in nature and involves risks, assumptions and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements.

Forward-looking statements relate to all matters which are not historical facts and include, without limitation, projections relating to results of operations and financial conditions and the Company’s plans and objectives for future operations. These statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, including terms such as ‘believes’, ‘estimates’, ‘anticipates’, ‘expects’, ‘forecasts’, ‘intends’, ‘plans’, ‘projects’, ‘goal’, ‘target’, ‘aim’, ‘may’, ‘will’, ‘would’, ‘could’ or ‘should’ or, in each case, their negative or other variations or comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements in this announcement are not guarantees of future performance. All forward-looking statements in this announcement are based upon information known to the Company on the date of this announcement. Accordingly, no assurance can be given that any particular expectation will be met and readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only at their respective dates. Additionally, forward-looking statements regarding past trends or activities should not be taken as a representation that such trends or activities will continue in the future. Other than in accordance with its legal or regulatory obligations (including under the UK Listing Rules and the Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules of the Financial Conduct Authority), the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Nothing in this announcement shall exclude any liability under applicable laws that cannot be excluded in accordance with such laws.

Download PDF - Results for the three months to 30 June 2026

BT is delivering, with record full fibre connections and further retail customer growth

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 07:00:00 +0000

Trading update for the quarter and nine months
to 31 December 2025

Allison Kirkby, Chief Executive, commenting on the results, said:

“BT continues to deliver on its strategy – building and connecting the UK to the best next-generation networks at record pace, while accelerating our transformation. Our network leadership strengthened further in the quarter, with full fibre broadband now reaching more than 21 million homes and businesses, and our 5G+ network accessible to 69% of the population. Openreach achieved record full fibre connections and our Consumer division again added customers in broadband, mobile and TV, as we make the most of all our brilliant brands – EE, BT and Plusnet.

“Customer satisfaction reached an all-time high this quarter, and with our transformation building momentum, we are delivering ahead of plan. We remain on track for our financial outlook and guidance metrics for this year, our cash flow inflection to c.£2.0bn next year, and to c.£3.0bn by the end of the decade."

Delivering on our strategy:

More than 1m premises passed with FTTP for an eighth consecutive quarter, continuing the fastest build any company has achieved in Europe; FTTP footprint at 21.4m premises, of which 5.9m in rural locations; on track to achieve up to 5m this fiscal year and reach 25m by December 2026
Record customer demand for Openreach FTTP with net adds of 571k, up 21% year-on-year; total premises connected 8.2m, increasing our market-leading take up rate to over 38%; Openreach broadband ARPU grew 4% to £16.8, driven by higher FTTP take-up, speed mix and price increases
Openreach broadband lines fell 210k, down quarter-on-quarter and at a similar rate to last year; we now expect full year losses at c.850k for the year, better than our previous estimate
Retail FTTP base grew 32% year-on-year to 4.2m, of which Consumer 3.9m and Business 0.3m
UK's best mobile network for a record 11th consecutive year as awarded by Umlaut Connect, extending EE's lead over the second placed network; Opensignal placed EE first in 11 of 15 categories in its January report and yesterday RootMetrics named EE the UK's best network for the 25th time; 5G base reached 14.3m, up 10% year-on-year; 5G+ coverage at 69%
All Consumer customer bases grew for a fourth consecutive quarter in broadband, up 8k, a third consecutive quarter in postpaid mobile, up 55k, and a sixth consecutive quarter in TV, up 22k
Consumer service revenue was flat year-on-year and remains on track for growth in H2; Consumer broadband ARPU was down 1% year-on-year to £41.8 and postpaid mobile ARPU was down 1% to £19.2; Consumer fixed and mobile convergence grew to 26.2% from 25.9% last quarter
Business continues to make progress on its transformation; Q3 year-on-year performance was impacted by contract milestones, mainly in the financial and public sectors and wholesale, as well as the phasing of costs across quarters
All five targeted disposals in International are now complete with the last, BT Radianz, closing on 1 February; disposals reduced International revenue in the quarter by £45m
Cost transformation delivered efficiencies across all units, offsetting higher employer costs of National Living Wage and National Insurance; the year to date energy usage in our networks was down 6%, total labour resource was down 7% to 108k and Openreach repair volumes were down 18%
Record BT Group NPS of 31.4, up 2.1pts year-on-year, demonstrating further improving customer experience

On track to achieve full year guidance:

Q3 reported and adjusted revenue¹ £5.0bn, down 4% year-on-year due to service revenue declines, lower equipment revenue, primarily handset trading, in Consumer and Business and the impact of divestments; Q3 adjusted UK service revenue¹£3.8bn, down 2%, due to the ongoing drag from legacy voice of over one percentage point as well as the phasing of trading in the prior year
Q3 adjusted EBITDA¹£2.1bn, down 1% and broadly flat excluding the impact of prior year one-off other operating income, with lower revenue offset by continued strong cost transformation
Q3 reported profit before tax of £183m, down £244m, driven by a £214m share of losses from the Sports JV
We remain on track for our financial outlook and guidance metrics, including our cash flow inflection to c.£2.0bn next year, and to c.£3.0bn by the end of the decade

_{¹ See Glossary below}
_{²Q3 FY25 comparative information for the Business CFU has been re-presented to reflect the formation of the new International CFU and re-presentations of segmental revenue to reflect the nature of services and trading relationships between CFUs. For further information see the glossary below or}_bt.com/about_{for a separation publication covering the formation of International}
_{n/m: comparison not meaningful}

Glossary


ARPU	Average Revenue Per User
FTTP	Fibre To The Premises
NPS	Net Promoter Score

Our commentary focuses on the trading results on an adjusted basis. This is consistent with the way that financial performance is measured by management and reported to the Board and the Executive Committee and assists in providing a meaningful analysis of the trading results of the group. Reported revenue and reported profit before tax are the equivalent unadjusted or statutory measures and are reconciled in pages 228 to 230 of the Annual Report 2025.


Adjusted revenue	Adjusted revenue is before specific items. Adjusted results are consistent with the way that financial performance is measured by management and assist in providing an additional analysis of the reporting trading results of the group.
Adjusted UK service revenue	Adjusted UK service revenue comprises all UK revenue less UK equipment revenue. Some revenue from equipment is included within adjusted UK service revenue where this is sold as part of a managed services contract or where that equipment cannot be practicably separated from the underlying service. UK revenue excludes International revenue.
Adjusted EBITDA	Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, before specific items, share of post tax profits/losses of associates and joint ventures and net finance expense.
Re-presented	We have re-presented certain Q3 FY25 comparatives to reflect changes in the Group's internal reporting structure. The International CFU was separated from Business forming a new CFU, effective from 1 July 2025. In addition, two re-presentations have been made to segmental revenue reporting, consistent with the information now provided to the Executive Committee, which is the key management committee and represents the 'chief operating decision maker' (CODM): Certain Openreach pass-through services previously reported as external revenue in Business have been reclassified to Openreach to reflect the customer relationship. As a result of this change the prior year comparatives have been re-presented to present revenue on a consistent basis resulting in a £69m reduction in Business segment revenue for the nine months to 31 December 2024, with no impact on Openreach segmental revenue due to the intra-group nature of the transaction. Following an update to the commercial terms governing a trading relationship between EE and BT Wholesale, BT Wholesale will now recognise services provided to EE as part of this trading relationship as intersegment revenue. Previously, these services were internally reported as cost recovery. This change results in the recognition of revenue within the Business segment. As a result of this change the prior year comparatives have been re-presented to present revenue and cost for the segment on a consistent basis. The effect of this change is to increase Business revenue year-to-date by £63m, with a corresponding increase in cost.
Specific items	Items that in management’s judgement need to be disclosed separately by virtue of their size, nature or incidence. In the current quarter these relate to our assessment of our provision for historic regulatory matters, restructuring charges, divestment-related items, Sports JV-related items and net interest expense on pensions. In determining whether an event or transaction is specific, management considers quantitative as well as qualitative factors such as the frequency or predictability of occurrence.

We are scheduled to announce the fourth quarter and full year results for FY26 on 21 May 2026.

Forward-looking statements – caution advised

Certain information included in this announcement is forward looking and involves risks, assumptions and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by forward looking statements. Forward looking statements cover all matters which are not historical facts and include, without limitation, projections relating to results of operations and financial conditions and the Company’s plans and objectives for future operations. Forward looking statements can be identified by the use of forward looking terminology, including terms such as ‘believes’, ‘estimates’, ‘anticipates’, ‘expects’, ‘forecasts’, ‘intends’, ‘plans’, ‘projects’, ‘goal’, ‘target’, ‘aim’, ‘may’, ‘will’, ‘would’, ‘could’ or ‘should’ or, in each case, their negative or other variations or comparable terminology. Forward looking statements in this announcement are not guarantees of future performance. All forward looking statements in this announcement are based upon information known to the Company on the date of this announcement. Accordingly, no assurance can be given that any particular expectation will be met and readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward looking statements, which speak only at their respective dates. Additionally, forward looking statements regarding past trends or activities should not be taken as a representation that such trends or activities will continue in the future. Other than in accordance with its legal or regulatory obligations (including under the UK Listing Rules and the Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules of the Financial Conduct Authority), the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Nothing in this announcement shall exclude any liability under applicable laws that cannot be excluded in accordance with such laws.

Download PDF - Trading update for the quarter and nine months to 31 December 2025

Results for the half year to 30 September 2025

Thu, 06 Nov 2025 07:00:00 +0000

Allison Kirkby, Chief Executive, commenting on the results, said:

“BT is delivering on its strategy in competitive markets. We're building the UK’s digital backbone, connecting the country like no one else and accelerating our transformation. Openreach full fibre broadband now reaches more than 20 million homes and businesses and our award-winning EE network is live with 5G+ coverage for 66% of the population. Since the start of the year, we’ve driven customer growth across Consumer broadband, mobile and TV and we’re stabilising our UK-focused Business division. Outside the UK, we’ve completed strategic exits and we’re reshaping our International unit. BT's transformation is delivering ahead of plan, as our UK focus and radical simplification and modernisation are helping to offset declines from our International and legacy businesses and higher labour-related costs since the start of this tax year.

“We remain on track to deliver our financial outlook for this year, our cash flow inflection to c.£2.0bn in FY27 and c.£3.0bn by the end of the decade, and we’re announcing an increased interim dividend to 2.45 pence per share.”

Delivering on our strategy in competitive markets

Record FTTP build of over 2.2m in the 6 month period; FTTP footprint reached 20.3m premises, of which 5.5m in rural locations; on track to build up to 5m this fiscal year and reach our target of 25m by December 2026
Record demand for Openreach FTTP with 1.1m net adds in H1; total premises connected grew to over 7.6m, again increasing our market-leading take-up rate, now 38%; Openreach broadband ARPU grew 4% year-on-year in H1 to £16.7, driven by CPI-linked price increases, higher FTTP take-up and speed mix
Openreach broadband lines fell 242k in Q2, driven by losses to competitors and a weaker broadband market; our expectation for FY26 remains unchanged at twice the H2 FY25 run rate
UK's best mobile network for a record-breaking twelfth consecutive year as awarded by RootMetrics, delivering the UK's best 5G experience; '5G+' standalone coverage up over 20ppts to 66% of the population and on track to deliver to 99% of the UK population by the end of FY30
Landmark agreement with Starlink announced, increasing broadband choice in hard to reach areas
Record retail FTTP base growth in H1 with Consumer up 476k to 3.7m and Business up 44k to 0.3m; 5G base reached 13.9m, up 11% year-on-year
Consumer customer bases grew for a third consecutive quarter in broadband and a second consecutive quarter in postpaid mobile, with growth also in TV; year-on-year Consumer broadband ARPU down 1.4% to £41.9 and Consumer postpaid mobile ARPU down 1.6% to £19.3 year-on-year; we continue to expect a return to year-on-year service revenue growth in H2; Consumer fixed and mobile convergence increased to 25.9% from 23.1% this time last year
Business unit now fully UK-focused, with a stabilising performance
Transformation delivering ahead of plan with £247m gross annualised cost savings during H1 FY26 and a cumulative total of £1.2bn realised in the first 18 months of our £3bn programme; year-on-year energy usage in our networks was down 5%, total labour resource was down 6% to 111k and Openreach repair volumes were down 13%; plans advanced to reshape International
BT Group NPS improved to 30.5, up 5.2pts year-on-year, demonstrating further improving customer experience

Financial performance on track; full year guidance reconfirmed

Reported and adjusted¹ revenue £9.8bn, down 3%, due to declines in legacy voice, lower mobile handset trading volumes and declines in International, offset by an improving FTTP mix in Openreach
Adjusted UK service revenue¹ £7.7bn, down 1%, due to declines in legacy voice and a competitive retail pricing environment, offset by an improving FTTP mix and price increases
Adjusted¹ EBITDA £4.1bn, flat year-on-year, with strong cost transformation and cost control offsetting revenue flow through and higher National Insurance and National Living Wage costs
Reported profit before tax £862m, down 11%, primarily driven by higher depreciation and amortisation from a higher asset base, and net finance expense driven by increased interest rates, offset by lower specific costs
Capital expenditure¹ ('capex') £2.4bn, up 8%, reflecting increased FTTP provisioning and build activity
Net cash inflow from operating activities £2.8bn; normalised free cash flow¹ £0.4bn, down £0.3bn due to higher cash capex, the absence of a prior year tax refund and lower net cash flows from working capital programmes
Net debt £20.9bn (31 March 2025: £19.8bn), increasing mainly due to scheduled pension contributions of £0.8bn and the payment of the full year dividend partially offset by cash from trading activities
Gross IAS 19 pension deficit of £3.9bn, a decrease from £4.1bn at 31 March 2025, mainly due to scheduled contributions offset by a decrease in credit spreads
Interim dividend of 2.45 pence per share (pps) up 2% from 2.40pps in H1 FY25 in line with our policy of paying 30% of prior year's full year dividend pps
FY26 Outlook reconfirmed: Adjusted¹ group revenue c£20bn, adjustedUK service revenue¹ of £15.3-£15.6bn and EBITDA of £8.2-£8.3bn; capital expenditure¹ excluding spectrum c. £5.0bn; normalised free cash flow¹ c. £1.5bn
Mid-term guidance reconfirmed: Adjusted¹ group revenue and adjusted UK service revenue¹ sustained growth from FY27 and EBITDA growth ahead of revenue, enhanced by cost transformation; capital expenditure¹ excluding spectrum reducing by more than £1bn from FY26 level; normalised free cash flow¹ of c. £2.0bn in FY27 and c. £3.0bn by the end of the decade

Customer-facing unit updates

_{¹See Glossary.}
_{²H1 and Q2 FY25 comparative information for the Business CFU has been re-presented to reflect the formation of the new International CFU and re-presentations of segmental revenue to reflect the nature of services and trading relationships between CFUs. Note 17 in the release presents a bridge between financial information for the half year to 30 September 2024 as published on 7 November 2024, and the comparatives presented in this release.}
_{³Net debt was £19,816 at 31 March 2025.}
_{⁴Includes spectrum investment of £1m.}
_{n/m: comparison not meaningful}

Glossary
Adjusted	Adjusted measures (including adjusted revenue, adjusted operating costs, adjusted operating profit, and adjusted basic earnings per share) are before specific items. Adjusted results are consistent with the way that financial performance is measured by management and assist in providing an additional analysis of the reporting trading results of the group.
Adjusted EBITDA	Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, before specific items, share of post tax profits/losses of associates and joint ventures and net finance expense.
Free cash flow	Net cash inflow from operating activities after net capital expenditure.
Capital expenditure	Additions to property, plant and equipment and intangible assets in the period.
Normalised free cash flow	Free cash flow (net cash inflow from operating activities after net capital expenditure) after net interest paid, payment of lease liabilities, net cash flows from the sale of cash flows related to contract assets, monies received as prepayment for the sale of redundant copper, dividends received from non-current assets investments, associates and joint ventures, and net purchase or disposal of non-current asset investments, before pension deficit payments (including their cash tax benefit), payments relating to spectrum, and specific items. It excludes cash flows that are determined at a corporate level independently of ongoing trading operations such as dividends paid, share buybacks, acquisitions and disposals, repayment and raising of debt, cash flows relating to loans with joint ventures, and cash flows relating to the Building Digital UK demand deposit account which have already been accounted for within normalised free cash flow. For non-tax related items the adjustments are made on a pre-tax basis.
Net debt	Loans and other borrowings and lease liabilities (both current and non-current), less current asset investments and cash and cash equivalents, including items which have been classified as held for sale on the balance sheet. Amounts due to joint ventures, loans and borrowings recognised in relation to monies received from the sale of cash flows of contract assets and as prepayment for the forward sale of redundant copper are excluded. Currency denominated balances within net debt are translated into sterling at swapped rates where hedged. Fair value adjustments and accrued interest applied to reflect the effective interest method are removed.
Adjusted UK service revenue	Adjusted UK service revenue comprises all UK revenue less UK equipment revenue. Some revenue from equipment is included within adjusted UK service revenue where this is sold as part of a managed services contract or where that equipment cannot be practicably separated from the underlying service. UK revenue excludes International revenue.
Re-presented	We have re-presented certain H1 FY25 comparatives to reflect changes in the Group's internal reporting structure. The International CFU was separated from Business forming a new CFU, effective from 1 July 2025. In addition, two re-presentations have been made to segmental revenue reporting, consistent with the information now provided to the Executive Committee, which is the key management committee and represents the 'chief operating decision maker' (CODM): Certain Openreach pass-through services previously reported as external revenue in Business have been reclassified to Openreach to reflect the customer relationship. As a result of this change the prior year comparatives have been re-presented to present revenue on a consistent basis resulting in a £46m reduction in Business segment revenue for the half year to 30 September 2024, with no impact on Openreach segmental revenue due to the intra-group nature of the transaction. Following an update to the commercial terms governing a trading relationship between EE and BT Wholesale, BT Wholesale will now recognise services provided to EE as part of this trading relationship as intersegment revenue. Previously, these services were internally reported as cost recovery. This change results in the recognition of revenue within the Business segment. As a result of this change the prior year comparatives have been re-presented to present revenue and cost for the segment on a consistent basis. The effect of this change is to increase Business revenue by £42m, with a corresponding increase in cost.
Specific items	Items that in management’s judgement need to be disclosed separately by virtue of their size, nature or incidence. In the current period these relate to our assessment of our provision for historic regulatory matters, impairment loss on remeasurement of held for sale items, increase in litigation provisions, restructuring charges, divestment-related items, Sports JV-related items and net interest expense on pensions. In determining whether an event or transaction is specific, management considers quantitative as well as qualitative factors such as the frequency or predictability of occurrence.

We assess the performance of the group using a variety of alternative performance measures. Reconciliations from the most directly comparable IFRS measures are in Additional Information on pages 34 to 36 of the release.

Forward-looking statements – caution advised

Download PDF - Results for the half year to 30 September 2025

Trading update for the three months to 30 June 2025

Thu, 24 Jul 2025 07:01:00 +0100

Allison Kirkby, Chief Executive, commenting on the results, said:

“BT has had a solid start to the year, with our full fibre broadband now reaching more than 19 million homes and businesses and our 5G network available to over 87% of the UK population. We’re seeing strong customer demand for our next-generation broadband and mobile connectivity across all our brands, with record Openreach fibre take-up again this quarter. And we’re delivering on our transformation, as we radically simplify our business while improving customer experience.

“BT is investing more than anyone else in the nation's networks, we’re connecting customers faster, and we're on track to deliver our targets for this year, next year, and the end of the decade - creating a better BT, for all of us.”

Strategic priorities delivering to plan:

More than 1m premises passed with FTTP for a sixth consecutive quarter, at an average build rate of 81k per week, on track to achieve up to 5m this fiscal year; FTTP footprint reached more than 19m premises, of which 5.2m in rural locations
Record customer demand for Openreach FTTP with net adds up 46% year-on-year to 566k; total premises connected 7.1m, increasing our market-leading take up rate to 37%; Hyperoptic has entered into a wholesale agreement with Openreach, further extending its national footprint; Openreach broadband ARPU up 4% to £16.6, driven by higher FTTP take-up, speed mix and price increases
Openreach broadband lines fell by 169k, driven by losses to competitors and a weaker broadband market; our full year expectation remains unchanged from that given in May
Retail FTTP base grew by 32% year-on-year to 3.7m of which Consumer 3.4m and Business 0.3m; 5G base reached 13.5m, up 12% year-on-year
Consumer customer base grew in the quarter, with broadband base up 11k and postpaid mobile base up 41k; Consumer broadband ARPU²down 2% year-on-year to £41.9 and postpaid mobile ARPU²of £19.4 broadly flat year-on-year, and we continue to expect a similar seasonal growth pattern as FY25; Consumer fixed and mobile convergence grew to 25.5% from 24.6% last quarter; EE proud to be sponsors of the Lionesses as they head towards the UEFA Euro 2025 final
Business adjusted UK service revenue down 2%, stable excluding traditional voice; EBITDA pressure was mainly in the international segment; Business will be reported as two separate customer-facing units from Q2 FY26 for our UK and International operations
Cost transformation delivered efficiencies across all units, fully offsetting higher employer costs of National Living Wage and National Insurance: year-on-year energy usage in our networks was down 5%, total labour resource was down 5% to 113k and Openreach repair volumes were down 14%
BT Group NPS of 30.4, up 5.6pts year-on-year, with improved customer experience across all our customer facing units

On track to achieve full year guidance:

Reported and adjusted revenue¹ £4.9bn, down 3% year-on-year mainly due to weaker handset sales in Consumer and continued challenging international trading, offsetting the benefit of FTTP growth in Openreach and price increases; Adjusted UK service revenue¹£3.9bn, down 1%, largely due to the seasonal impact of price changes in Consumer and traditional voice in Business
Adjusted EBITDA¹£2.1bn, down 1% with adverse revenue offset by strong cost transformation
Reported profit before tax of £468m, down 10% primarily due to an increase in net finance costs and depreciation and amortisation
Reconfirming all FY26 and multi-year financial outlook metrics

_{¹ See Glossary below}
_{² As reported at Q4 FY25, broadband and postpaid mobile ARPUs for Q1 FY25 have been restated following a reassessment of the EE One treatment which resulted in a reclassification of revenues between product types.}
_{³ Following a review of trading relationships relating to a number of Openreach pass-through services, a number of customers were transferred from Business to Openreach. Q1 FY25 has been restated to remove £24m revenue from Business. There is no impact on Openreach segmental results as the revenue was previously classified as internal so was already included in Openreach results; there is a contra entry through intra-group items.}
_{n/m: comparison not meaningful}

Glossary

Our commentary focuses on the trading results on an adjusted basis. This is consistent with the way that financial performance is measured by management and reported to the Board and the Executive Committee and assists in providing a meaningful analysis of the trading results of the group. Reported revenue and reported profit before tax are the equivalent unadjusted or statutory measures and are reconciled in pages 228 to 230 of the Annual Report 2025.


Adjusted revenue	Adjusted revenue is before specific items. Adjusted results are consistent with the way that financial performance is measured by management and assist in providing an additional analysis of the reporting trading results of the group.
Adjusted UK service revenue	Adjusted UK service revenue comprises all UK revenue less UK equipment revenue. Some revenue from equipment is included within adjusted UK service revenue where this is sold as part of a managed services contract or where that equipment cannot be practicably separated from the underlying service. Adjusted UK service revenue excludes revenues from our International channel within our business segment as they are international in nature.
Adjusted EBITDA	Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, before specific items, share of post tax profits/losses of associates and joint ventures and net finance expense.
International	International comprises our Global channel and international elements of our Portfolio channel within our Business segment. International will be reported as a separate CFU from Q2 FY26.
Specific items	Items that in management’s judgement need to be disclosed separately by virtue of their size, nature or incidence. In the current quarter these relate to our assessment of our provision for historic regulatory matters, restructuring charges, divestment-related items, Sports JV-related items and net interest expense on pensions. In determining whether an event or transaction is specific, management considers quantitative as well as qualitative factors such as the frequency or predictability of occurrence.

We are scheduled to announce the second quarter and half year results for FY26 on 6 November 2025.

Forward-looking statements – caution advised

Download PDF - Trading update for the three months to 30 June 2025

Results for the full year to 31 March 2025

Thu, 22 May 2025 07:00:00 +0100

Allison Kirkby, Chief Executive, commenting on the results, said

“BT Group delivered strong progress against its strategic priorities in FY25, as we stepped up the pace of build of the UK’s leading next generation networks. We set new record build and connect highs: our full fibre network now reaches more than 18m homes and businesses, with more than 6.5m already connected, and we were awarded the country’s best mobile network for the 11th year in a row recognising EE’s clear leadership in 5G. We also accelerated the pace of simplification and transformation, agreeing asset sales, improving customer satisfaction across all of our brands and business segments, and delivering over £900m of annualised cost savings.

“Although revenue declined year-on-year driven mainly by lower international sales and handsets, strong cost control and a step-up in focus and transformation resulted in growth in both EBITDA and normalised free cash flow, allowing us to increase our dividend for FY25 by 2% to 8.16p per share.

“The momentum in, and impact of, our full fibre programme is such that we are now raising our build target by 20% to up to 5m UK premises in FY26, keeping us comfortably on track to reach 25m by the end of 2026, while maintaining our cash flow guidance. We are now only one year away from our inflection to £2bn of normalised free cash flow, our target for FY27, and remain on track to deliver £3bn by the end of the decade.

“With the leadership team now in place to take our strategy forward, I am confident that as we build and connect at pace, our transformation will accelerate and deliver a better BT for all of us - our customers, our colleagues, the country and our owners.”

Strong delivery against our strategy

Record FTTP build of 4.3m premises passed in the year; FTTP footprint reached more than 18m premises, of which 4.9m in rural locations
Record demand for Openreach FTTP with quarterly net adds above 500k for the first time; total premises connected over 6.5m, increasing our market-leading take up rate to 36%; Openreach broadband ARPU in the year grew by 6% to £16.0, driven by higher FTTP take-up, speed mix and CPI
Openreach broadband lines fell 243k in Q4, driven by losses to competitors and a weaker broadband market; expect the H2 run rate to continue through FY26
New FTTP build target of up to 5m announced for FY26, to accelerate FTTP benefits including take-up and underpinning the December 2026 target of 25m
UK's best mobile network for the eleventh consecutive year as awarded by RootMetrics; tenth year of best network with umlaut connect; best 5G availability with speedtest; 5G standalone rolled out across 50 major UK towns and cities, covering over 40% of the population
Retail FTTP base grew by 33% year-on-year to 3.4m, of which Consumer was 3.2m and Business was 0.2m; 5G base reached 13.2m, up 15% year-on-year
Consumer customer bases relatively stable in the year with a return to growth in the broadband base in Q4; Consumer broadband ARPU¹ up 2.4% year-on-year to £42.2; Consumer postpaid mobile ARPU¹ £19.4 in line year-on-year; Consumer fixed and mobile convergence grew to 24.6% from 22.9% last year
Business continued to refocus on the UK with disposals of operations in Ireland and, after the period end, Italy; the Emergency Services Network contract was secured for another seven years
Transformation delivering ahead of plan with £913m of gross annualised cost savings during FY25 at a cost to achieve in line with our plan of £448m; energy usage in our networks was down 4% and total labour resource was down 3% to 116k; we achieved a 10% reduction in Openreach repair volumes
BT Group NPS improved to 29.5, up 4.7pts year-on-year, demonstrating further improving customer experience across all three customer facing units

Continued EBITDA growth in FY25 and normalised free cash flow²ahead of guidance

Reported and adjusted² revenue £20.4bn, down 2%, mainly due to continued challenging trading conditions in our Global and non-UK Portfolio channels and weaker handset trading in Consumer, offsetting the benefit of FTTP growth in Openreach and price increases; Adjusted UK service revenue² £15.6bn, down 1%, largely due to legacy voice declines
Adjusted² EBITDA £8.2bn, up 1%, driven by strong cost transformation
Reported profit before tax £1.3bn, up 12%, primarily due to goodwill impairment in the prior year, offset by higher specific costs and net finance expense
Capital expenditure² ('capex') £4.9bn broadly in line with the prior year
Net cash inflow from operating activities £7.0bn; normalised free cash flow² £1.6bn, up 25% due to higher EBITDA and a lower working capital outflow
Net debt £19.8bn (31 March 2024: £19.5bn), increased mainly due to our scheduled pension scheme contributions of £0.8bn partly offset by free cash flow
Gross IAS 19 pension deficit of £4.1bn, a decrease from £4.8bn at 31 March 2024 mainly due to scheduled contributions
Final dividend of 5.76 pence per share (pps) up from 5.69pps, bringing the full year dividend to 8.16pps, up 2%
FY26 Outlook: Adjusted² group revenue c£20bn and adjusted²UK service revenue of £15.3-£15.6bn and EBITDA of £8.2-8.3bn; capital expenditure excluding spectrum c.£5.0bn; normalised free cash flow² c.£1.5bn
Mid-term guidance: Adjusted² group revenue and adjusted²UK service revenue sustained growth from FY27 and EBITDA growth ahead of revenue, enhanced by cost transformation; capital expenditure excluding spectrum reducing by more than £1bn from FY26 level; normalised free cash flow² of c.£2.0bn in FY27 and c.£3.0bn by the end of the decade

Customer-facing unit updates

Performance against FY25 outlook

_{¹Consumer have reassessed the treatment of EE One and more specifically the standalone selling price of each good and service provided to the customer under the converged offering, and as such the allocation of the total transaction price to be received under the contract to each distinct product. This has resulted in a reclassification of revenues between product types.}
_{²See Glossary.}
_{n/m: comparison not meaningful}

Glossary


Adjusted	Adjusted measures (including adjusted revenue, adjusted operating costs, adjusted operating profit, and adjusted basic earnings per share) are before specific items. Adjusted results are consistent with the way that financial performance is measured by management and assist in providing an additional analysis of the reporting trading results of the group.
Adjusted EBITDA	Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, before specific items, share of post tax profits/losses of associates and joint ventures and net finance expense.
Free cash flow	Net cash inflow from operating activities after net capital expenditure.
Capital expenditure	Additions to property, plant and equipment and intangible assets in the period.
Normalised free cash flow	Free cash flow (net cash inflow from operating activities after net capital expenditure) after net interest paid, payment of lease liabilities, net cash flows from the sale of cash flows related to contract assets, monies received as prepayment for the sale of redundant copper, dividends received from non-current assets investments, associates and joint ventures, and net purchase or disposal of non-current asset investments, before pension deficit payments (including their cash tax benefit), payments relating to spectrum, and specific items. It excludes cash flows that are determined at a corporate level independently of ongoing trading operations such as dividends paid, share buybacks, acquisitions and disposals, repayment and raising of debt, cash flows relating to loans with joint ventures, and cash flows relating to the Building Digital UK demand deposit account which have already been accounted for within normalised free cash flow. For non-tax related items the adjustments are made on a pre-tax basis.
Net debt	Loans and other borrowings and lease liabilities (both current and non-current), less current asset investments and cash and cash equivalents, including items which have been classified as held for sale on the balance sheet. Amounts due to joint ventures, loans and borrowings recognised in relation to monies received from the sale of cash flows of contract assets and as prepayment for the forward sale of redundant copper are excluded. Currency denominated balances within net debt are translated into sterling at swapped rates where hedged. Fair value adjustments and accrued interest applied to reflect the effective interest method are removed.
Adjusted UK Service revenue	Adjusted UK Service revenue comprises all UK revenue less UK equipment revenue. Some revenue from equipment is included within adjusted UK service revenue where this is sold as part of a managed services contract or where that equipment cannot be practicably separated from the underlying service. Adjusted UK service revenue excludes revenues from our Global channel and international elements of our Portfolio channel within our Business segment, as they are international in nature.
Specific items	Items that in management’s judgement need to be disclosed separately by virtue of their size, nature or incidence. In the current period these relate to our assessment of our provision for historic regulatory matters, impairment on remeasurement of the disposal groups to held for sale, impairment charges in our portfolio businesses, restructuring charges, divestment-related items, Sports JV-related items and net interest expense on pensions. In determining whether an event or transaction is specific, management considers quantitative as well as qualitative factors such as the frequency or predictability of occurrence.

Forward-looking statements – caution advised

Download PDF - Results for the full year to 31 March 2025

Trading update for the quarter and nine months to 31 December 2024

Thu, 30 Jan 2025 07:01:00 +0000

Allison Kirkby, Chief Executive, commenting on the results, said

“Our ongoing modernisation continues at pace, delivering a further step-up in fibre build and take-up, customer satisfaction and EBITDA. Benefits from our cost transformation more than offset lower revenue outside the UK and weak handset sales.

“Openreach again performed strongly with the highest ever full fibre build, passing more than 1 million premises for the fourth consecutive quarter, and connecting a new record of nearly half a million customers. Consumer returned to service revenue growth and continued to expand its full fibre and 5G customer bases. In Business, our core UK channels were stable. Cost transformation remains firmly on track, with excellent progress on both energy costs and productivity in the quarter.

“We continue to make progress towards becoming fully focused on the UK, with the sale of our data centre business in Ireland. I am also very pleased to welcome Jon James to BT’s Executive Committee as the new CEO of a UK-centric BT Business, effective early March. This appointment enables Bas Burger to dedicate his time to the optimisation of our international business segment, which is progressing to plan.

"BT’s continued delivery means we remain on track to deliver our financial outlook for this year and our cash flow inflection to c.£2.0bn in 2027 and c£3.0bn by the end of the decade.”

Continued progress on strategic priorities:

Record FTTP build rate of over 1m premises passed in the quarter for a fourth consecutive quarter; FTTP footprint reached 17m premises, more than half of the UK; on track to pass 4.2m in FY25 and reach 25m by December 2026
Record customer demand for Openreach FTTP with net adds of 472k in the quarter; total premises connected 6.0m with a growing take up rate of over 35%. Openreach total broadband lines fell by 208k, as we continue to see moderately higher competitor losses with a weaker overall broadband and new homes market; over 80% of our line losses occur where we have not built FTTP
Openreach broadband ARPU in the quarter grew year on year by 6% to £16.1, ahead of the CPI price increases, driven by a greater FTTP take-up and speed mix
Retail FTTP base grew by 33% year on year to 3.2m of which Consumer 3.0m and Business 0.2m
Consumer service revenue returned to growth, up 0.4% year on year after a 1.3% decline in H1; service revenue growth was more than offset by a 12% decline in equipment revenue, mainly handset trading
Consumer customer base relatively stable with broadband base down 40k quarter on quarter (0.5% decline); postpaid mobile base down 4k quarter on quarter (<0.1% decline)
Consumer broadband ARPU down 1.2% year on year to £40.6; Consumer postpaid mobile ARPU up 5.7% year on year to £20.3
Consumer fixed and mobile convergence grew in the quarter from 23.1% to 23.4%; 5G standalone launched in a further 16 new locations, bringing 5G standalone to over 30 major UK towns and cities; EE was named the winner of the umlaut connect 2025 Mobile Network Test in the UK for a 10th consecutive year
Business revenues were stable in our core UK channels; £1.3bn contract signed with the Home Office to continue providing mobile services for the Emergency Services Network over the next seven years
Cost transformation remains on track as we continue to create a simpler BT Group, delivering efficiencies across all units; energy usage in our networks was down 3% in the year-to-date and total labour resource down 3% year-on-year to 117k; we achieved an 11% reduction in year-to-date Openreach repair volumes
BT Group NPS of 29.6, up 4.0pts during Q3, reflecting ongoing improvements in customer experience

Excellent cost control continues to deliver EBITDA growth:

Q3 Adjusted¹ revenue £5.2bn, down 3% year-on-year mainly due to continued challenging non-UK trading conditions in our Global and Portfolio channels and weaker handset trading in Consumer, offsetting the impact of FTTP growth in Openreach and price increases. Reported revenue £5.2bn, down 3%
Q3 Adjusted¹ EBITDA £2.1bn, up 4% driven by strong cost transformation and one-off other operating income in the low tens of millions which more than offset adverse revenue
Q3 Reported profit before tax of £427m, up 1% primarily due to EBITDA growth, offset partially by increased net finance costs and increased depreciation and amortisation
Reconfirming our FY25 financial outlook and our mid-term guidance

_{¹ See Glossary below}
_{² As disclosed in the prior year, Q3 FY24 results included a correction of H1 FY24 revenue across Openreach and Business, with no impact on total group revenue. £38m external wholesale revenue was incorrectly recognised by Business in H1 FY24. H1 FY24 results were not restated; the correction was booked within Q3 FY24 to ensure the results for the nine months to 31 December 2023 were correctly stated. Excluding the adjustment, Q3 Business revenue would have declined 4%, while intra-group items would have increased 4%.}
_{n/m: comparison not meaningful}

Glossary

Our commentary focuses on the trading results on an adjusted basis. This is consistent with the way that financial performance is measured by management and reported to the Board and the Executive Committee and assists in providing a meaningful analysis of the trading results of the group. Reported revenue and reported profit before tax are the equivalent unadjusted or statutory measures and are reconciled in pages 231 to 233 of the Annual Report 2024.


Adjusted revenue	Adjusted revenue is before specific items. Adjusted results are consistent with the way that financial performance is measured by management and assist in providing an additional analysis of the reporting trading results of the group.
Adjusted EBITDA	Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, before specific items, share of post tax profits/losses of associates and joint ventures and net finance expense.
Fixed and mobile convergence	Total households served by Consumer which have both a BT Group (any brand) fixed broadband and PAYM mobile connection present, divided by total number of Consumer households (excluding voice fixed line).
Service revenue	Earned from services delivered using our fixed and mobile network connectivity, including but not limited to, broadband, calls, line rental, TV, residential sport subscriptions, mobile data connectivity, incoming & outgoing mobile calls and roaming by customers of overseas networks.
Specific items	Items that in management’s judgement need to be disclosed separately by virtue of their size, nature or incidence. In the current quarter these relate to our assessment of our provision for historic regulatory matters, out of period balance sheet adjustments, restructuring charges, divestment-related items, Sports JV-related items and net interest expense on pensions. In determining whether an event or transaction is specific, management considers quantitative as well as qualitative factors such as the frequency or predictability of occurrence.

We are scheduled to announce the fourth quarter and full year results for FY25 on 22 May 2025.

Forward-looking statements – caution advised

Download PDF - Trading update for the quarter and nine months to 31 December 2024

Results for the half year to 30 September 2024

Thu, 07 Nov 2024 07:00:00 +0000

Allison Kirkby, Chief Executive, commenting on the results, said

“We have accelerated the modernisation of BT Group in the first half of the year. We’ve ramped up our full fibre build and connections, seen further improvements in customer satisfaction, and our cost transformation contributed to growth in EBITDA and normalised free cash flow despite revenue declines driven by our non-UK operations and a competitive retail environment.

“Our nationwide full fibre rollout has set new records, now reaching more than 16 million premises, and we have further extended our industry-leading take-up rate to 35%. Our cost to build continues to reduce, enabling us to increase this year's build target to 4.2 million with no additional capex spend. We also expanded our 5G network to cover 80% of the UK population, more than any other operator. These investments in the UK’s next generation networks are enabling much better experiences, reflected in our improved net promoter scores.

“We are confirming our EBITDA, capex and cash flow guidance for FY25, albeit on lower revenue guidance. We remain firmly on track to meet our long-term cost savings and cash flow targets, and today announce an interim dividend of 2.40pps. The accelerated modernisation of our operations, combined with a focus on connecting the UK, puts us in a strong position to generate significant value for all our stakeholders.”

Solid progress on strategic priorities

Record FTTP build rate of 2.1m in the half with FTTP footprint passing 16m premises, around half of the UK, in October. We have increased our FY25 build target to 4.2m within our existing capex envelope driven by build cost efficiencies; on track to reach 25m by December 2026
Strong customer demand for Openreach FTTP with record net adds of 446k in Q2; total premises connected 5.5m with an increased and market-leading take up rate of 35%. Growth in FTTP as a proportion of the broadband base contributed to a reduction in 12-month repair volumes of 0.3m to 3.0m, supporting growth in margin and EBITDA
Openreach broadband ARPU in H1 grew year-on-year by 6% to £16, ahead of the CPI price increases, driven by a greater FTTP take-up and speed mix; Openreach broadband line losses in H1 were 377k, a 2% decline in the broadband base - we continue to see moderately higher competitor losses with a weaker overall broadband and new homes market
Retail FTTP base grew by 35% year-on-year to 3.0m of which Consumer 2.8m and Business 0.2m; 5G base 12.5m, up 25% year-on-year
Consumer postpaid mobile base at 13.9m; Consumer broadband base marginally lower at 8.2m. Consumer ARPUs relatively stable despite lower CPI benefits
Business revenue decline due primarily to non-UK trading in our Global and Portfolio channels
Cost transformation on track with £433m gross annualised cost savings during H1 FY25; Total Labour Resource down 2k to 118k and down 4% year-on-year
BT Group NPS of 25.6, up 3.1pts year-on-year, further improving customer experience

Continued EBITDA and normalised free cash flow¹ improvement:

Adjusted¹ revenue £10.1bn, down 3% mainly due to challenging conditions in Business, principally driven by non-UK trading in our Global and Portfolio channels. In the rest of the Group, lower CPI benefit and continued competitive markets in Consumer were broadly offset by growth in Openreach due to the benefit of price increases, Ethernet base growth and improving FTTP volume and mix; reported revenue £10.1bn, down 3%
Adjusted¹ EBITDA £4.1bn, up 1%, with revenue flow through more than offset by cost transformation
Reported profit before tax £1.0bn, down 10% primarily due to lower revenue, higher specific costs and higher net finance expenses, partly offset by reduction in reported operating costs
Capital expenditure ('capex') £2.3bn, down 2% with peak reported capex passed in FY24, primarily driven by lower networks spend despite higher FTTP build due to reduced unit costs and efficiencies; cash capex of £2.5bn in line with prior year
Net cash inflow from operating activities £3.0bn; normalised free cash flow¹ £0.7bn, up 57% due to higher EBITDA, working capital timing and a tax refund
Net debt £20.3bn (31 March 2024: £19.5bn), increased mainly due to our scheduled pension scheme contributions of £0.8bn with cash inflow offset by payment of the final dividend
Gross IAS 19 pension deficit of £4.3bn, a decrease from £4.8bn at 31 March 2024 mainly due to scheduled contributions, partly offset by lower than required asset returns in the period
Interim dividend of 2.40 pence per share (pps) up from 2.31pps in H1 FY24 in line with our policy of paying 30% of prior year's full year dividend pps. FY24 final dividend paid in September was fully covered by normalised free cash flow¹
FY25 Outlook: FY25 guidance reiterated for adjusted EBITDA¹, capital expenditure and normalised free cash flow¹. FY25 revenue guidance revised to down 1-2% primarily reflecting weaker non-UK trading including reduced low-margin kit sales, along with a softer environment in Corporate and Public Sector
Mid-term guidance: Sustained adjusted¹revenue growth and EBITDA growth ahead of revenue, enhanced by cost transformation from FY26 to FY30; capital expenditure excluding spectrum less than £4.8bn until FY26, reducing by c. £1bn post peak FTTP build; normalised free cash flow of c. £2.0bn in FY27 and c. £3.0bn by the end of the decade

Customer-facing unit updates

_{¹See Glossary.}
_{²Net debt was £19,479m at 31 March 2024.}
_{n/m: comparison not meaningful}

Glossary


Adjusted	Adjusted measures (including adjusted revenue, adjusted operating costs, adjusted operating profit, and adjusted basic earnings per share) are before specific items. Adjusted results are consistent with the way that financial performance is measured by management and assist in providing an additional analysis of the reporting trading results of the group.
Adjusted EBITDA	Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, before specific items, share of post tax profits/losses of associates and joint ventures and net finance expense.
Free cash flow	Net cash inflow from operating activities after net capital expenditure.
Capital expenditure	Additions to property, plant and equipment and intangible assets in the period.
Normalised free cash flow	Free cash flow (net cash inflow from operating activities after net capital expenditure) after net interest paid, payment of lease liabilities, net cash flows from the sale of cash flows related to contract assets, monies received as prepayment for the sale of redundant copper, dividends received from non-current assets investments, associates and joint ventures, and net purchase or disposal of non-current asset investments, before pension deficit payments (including their cash tax benefit), payments relating to spectrum, and specific items. It excludes cash flows that are determined at a corporate level independently of ongoing trading operations such as dividends paid, share buybacks, acquisitions and disposals, repayment and raising of debt, cash flows relating to loans with joint ventures, and cash flows relating to the Building Digital UK demand deposit account which have already been accounted for within normalised free cash flow. For non-tax related items the adjustments are made on a pre-tax basis.
Net debt	Loans and other borrowings and lease liabilities (both current and non-current), less current asset investments and cash and cash equivalents, including items which have been classified as held for sale on the balance sheet. Amounts due to joint ventures, loans and borrowings recognised in relation to monies received from the sale of cash flows of contract assets and as prepayment for the forward sale of redundant copper are excluded. Currency denominated balances within net debt are translated into sterling at swapped rates where hedged. Fair value adjustments and accrued interest applied to reflect the effective interest method are removed.
Specific items	Items that in management’s judgement need to be disclosed separately by virtue of their size, nature or incidence. In the current period these relate to our assessment of our provision for historic regulatory matters, restructuring charges, divestment-related items, Sports JV-related items and net interest expense on pensions. In determining whether an event or transaction is specific, management considers quantitative as well as qualitative factors such as the frequency or predictability of occurrence.

Forward-looking statements – caution advised

Download PDF - Results for the half year to 30 September 2024

Trading update for the three months to 30 June 2024

Thu, 25 Jul 2024 07:00:00 +0100

Allison Kirkby, Chief Executive, commenting on the results, said

“We’ve made a solid start to the year, with excellent growth in both fibre build and connections, and increased EBITDA.

“Openreach continues to build at pace and with even more efficiency, passing the milestones of 5 million connections and - just yesterday - 15 million premises built. In Consumer, the widespread availability of FTTP and 5G combined with our new EE propositions has contributed to an improved trend in our customer base, in what remains a very competitive market. In Business, we also saw improved trends, as we continue to modernise our portfolio and our operations towards a simpler business, delivering secure, cloud-based connectivity and communication services for all our customers.

“Our ongoing cost transformation contributed to EBITDA growth, and more than offset the expected revenue declines in Consumer and Business in the quarter. There is much more to do to simplify BT Group and deliver for our customers. We remain on track to deliver our financial outlook for this year and our cash flow inflection to c. £2.0bn in 2027 and c. £3.0bn by the end of the decade.”

Strategic priorities delivering to plan:

Record FTTP build of over 1m premises passed in the quarter at an average build rate of 78k per week; FTTP footprint is now 15m with 4.2m rural premises passed and around a further 6m where initial build is underway
FTTP customer base surpassed 5m during the quarter; strong FTTP demand with orders up 29% year-on-year; take up rate is at 34% with continued strong net adds of 387k
Openreach broadband ARPU grew by 6% year-on-year due to price rises and increased volumes of FTTP; Openreach broadband line losses of 196k, with moderately higher competitor losses combined with a weaker overall broadband and new homes market
Consumer broadband ARPU up 1% year-on-year to £42.4 and Consumer postpaid mobile ARPU increased 0.5% year-on-year to £19.8, with positive mix effects offsetting the expected tougher pricing comparative
Consumer base trend improved despite a competitive market, with the broadband base down 28k quarter-on-quarter (0.3% decline) and postpaid mobile base down 15k quarter-on-quarter (0.1% decline)
Business financial performance continues to be impacted by legacy managed contract declines, reduced low margin sales activity and contraction in the portfolio unit offset by cost transformation
Retail FTTP base grew year-on-year by 36% to 2.7m of which Consumer 2.6m and Business 0.1m; 5G base 11.3m, up 22% year-on-year
BT Group NPS of 25.1, up 0.3pts year-on-year, demonstrating further improving customer experience
BT Group has been recognised by TIME Magazine and Statista as one of the “World’s Most Sustainable Companies 2024”

Transformation and tight cost control delivers EBITDA growth:

Adjusted¹ revenue £5.1bn, down 2% on Q1 FY24 due to legacy managed contract declines, reduced low margin sales activity and contraction in the portfolio unit within Business, and the continued shift to mobile SIM only and a lower CPI benefit in a competitive market in Consumer. This is partly offset by price increases and FTTP and Ethernet base growth in Openreach; reported revenue £5.0bn was down 2%
Adjusted¹ EBITDA £2.1bn, up 1% with transformation and tight cost control, including lower staff costs, partly offset by revenue decline
Reported profit before tax of £520m, down 3%, with decreased revenue broadly offset by reduction in reported operating costs
Reconfirming all FY25 financial outlook metrics

_{¹ See Glossary}
_{n/m: comparison not meaningful}

Glossary

Our commentary focuses on the trading results on an adjusted basis. This is consistent with the way that financial performance is measured by management and reported to the Board and the Executive Committee and assists in providing a meaningful analysis of the trading results of the group. Reported revenue and reported profit before tax are the equivalent unadjusted or statutory measures and are reconciled in pages 231 to 233 of the Annual Report 2024.


Adjusted revenue	Adjusted revenue is before specific items. Adjusted results are consistent with the way that financial performance is measured by management and assist in providing an additional analysis of the reporting trading results of the group.
Adjusted EBITDA	Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, before specific items, share of post tax profits/losses of associates and joint ventures and net finance expense.
Specific items	Items that in management’s judgement need to be disclosed separately by virtue of their size, nature or incidence. In the current period these relate to changes to our assessment of our provision for historical regulatory matters, restructuring charges, divestment-related items and net interest expense on pensions. In determining whether an event or transaction is specific, management considers quantitative as well as qualitative factors such as the frequency or predictability of occurrence.

We are scheduled to announce the second quarter and half year results for FY25 on 7 November 2024.

Forward-looking statements – caution advised

Download PDF - Trading update for the three months to 30 June 2024

Results for the full year to 31 March 2024

Thu, 16 May 2024 07:00:00 +0100

Allison Kirkby, Chief Executive, commenting on the results, said

“BT Group built and connected customers to our next generation networks at record speed and efficiency over the past year, while continuing to grow revenue and EBITDA. Having passed peak capex on our full fibre broadband rollout and achieved our £3 billion cost and service transformation programme a year ahead of schedule, we’ve now reached the inflection point on our long-term strategy.

“This delivery and greater capex efficiency gives us the confidence to provide new guidance for significantly increased short term cash flow and sets out a path to more than double our normalised free cash flow over the next five years. This enhanced cash flow allows us to increase our dividend for FY24 by 3.9% to 8.0 pence per share. We’re also setting a further £3bn of gross annualised cost savings to be reached by the end of FY29.

"As we move into the next phase of BT Group's transformation, we are sharpening our focus to be better for our customers and the country, by accelerating the modernisation of our operations, and by exploring options to optimise our global business. This will create a simpler BT Group, fully focused on connecting the UK, and well positioned to generate significant growth for all our stakeholders.”

Continued strong delivery against our strategy

FTTP build rate accelerated to 1.0m premises passed in the quarter, a record 78k per week. FTTP footprint now over 14m premises with a further 6m where initial build is underway; on track to reach 25m by December 2026. Department for Science, Innovation and Technology has notified Openreach of its preferred bidder status for Project Gigabit cross-regional supplier contract (Type C)¹
Strong Openreach customer demand for FTTP with net adds of 397k in Q4; total premises connected now over 4.8m with increased take-up rate of 34%
Openreach broadband ARPU in FY24 grew year-on-year by 10% to £15.1 due to price rises and increased volumes and mix of FTTP; Openreach broadband line losses of 491k, a 2% decline in the broadband base, as weaker than expected growth in the broadband market in FY24 did not offset competitor losses which were at comparable levels to FY23; we expect that the broadband market will recover over the medium term but if it remains weak over the next 12 months then we can expect Openreach’s broadband base to be impacted by moderately higher competitor losses
Consumer broadband ARPU in FY24 increased 5% year-on-year to £41.2; Consumer postpaid mobile ARPU increased 9% year-on-year to £19.4; monthly churn for the year remained stable in a competitive market with broadband and postpaid mobile both at 1.1%
Business financial performance continues to be impacted by higher input costs, legacy declines, a one off revenue adjustment and prior year one-offs, partly offset by cost transformation and growth in Small & Medium Business (SMB) and Security
Retail FTTP base grew year-on-year by 40% to 2.6m of which Consumer 2.4m and Business 0.2m; 5G base 11.1m, up 29% year-on-year
Cost transformation target of £3bn gross annualised cost savings since May 2020 achieved 12 months early, at a cost to achieve of £1.5bn, £0.1bn lower than target. Announced further £3bn gross annualised cost savings by end FY29 at a cost to achieve of £1.0bn
BT Group NPS of 24.0, up 1.0pts year-on-year, further improving customer experience
Looking forward, BT Group will focus on the UK; we will explore all options to optimise our global business

FY24 Normalised free cash flow² (NFCF) ahead of guidance; dividend raised; growth in NFCF to £1.5bn in FY25, £2.0bn in FY27 and £3bn by the end of the decade

Reported revenue £20.8bn, up 1%; adjusted² revenue £20.8bn, up 2% on a pro forma³ basis due to price increases and fibre-enabled product sales in Openreach, increased service revenue in Consumer with annual contractual price rises being aided by higher roaming and increased FTTP connections, partly offset by legacy product declines and a one-off revenue adjustment in Business
Adjusted² EBITDA £8.1bn, up 2%; and up 1% on a pro forma³ basis with revenue flow through and cost control more than offsetting cost inflation and one-off items; Openreach and Consumer delivered strong EBITDA growth, partially offset by EBITDA decline in Business due to increased input costs and legacy high-margin managed contract declines
We have recognised a non-cash impairment of goodwill allocated to Business of £488m as a specific item, reflecting a decline in profitability in recent years
Reported profit before tax £1.2bn, down 31% primarily due to impairment of goodwill, increased depreciation, amortisation and pension interest expense, partially offset by adjusted² EBITDA growth
Capital expenditure ('capex') £4.9bn, down 3% primarily driven by lower networks spend despite higher FTTP build in the year due to reduced unit costs and efficiencies; cash capex of £5.0bn also down 6%
Net cash inflow from operating activities £6.0bn; normalised free cash flow² £1.3bn, down 4% due to working capital timing and a prior year tax refund, partly offset by EBITDA growth and lower capital expenditure
Net debt £19.5bn (FY23: £18.9bn), increased mainly due to our scheduled pension scheme contributions of £0.8bn
Gross IAS 19 pension deficit of £4.8bn, up from £3.1bn at 31 March 2023 mainly due to the increase in real interest rates and narrowing of credit spreads over the period, partly offset by our scheduled contributions
Final dividend of 5.69 pence per share (pps), bringing the full year dividend to 8.00pps, up 3.9%
FY25 Outlook: Adjusted² revenue growth of 0-1% and EBITDA of around £8.2bn; capital expenditure excluding spectrum less than £4.8bn; normalised free cash flow of around £1.5bn
Mid-term guidance: Consistent and predictable adjusted² revenue growth and EBITDA growth ahead of revenue, enhanced by cost transformation from FY26 to FY30; capital expenditure excluding spectrum less than £4.8bn until FY26, reducing by c. £1bn post peak FTTP build; normalised free cash flow of c. £2.0bn in FY27 and c. £3.0bn by the end of the decade

Customer-facing unit updates

Performance against FY24 outlook

_{¹ Subject to contract signing.}
_{²See Glossary.}
_{³See 'Prior period comparatives' section below for more information on pro forma and re-presented measures.}
_{n/m: comparison not meaningful}

Prior period comparatives

Throughout this release, comparative financial information for year to 31 March 2023 ('FY23') has been re-presented to reflect the merger of our Global and Enterprise business units to form Business; and the change in the methodology used to allocate shared Network, Digital and support function costs across our units, which improves the relevance of our financial reporting by better allocating internal costs to the drivers behind those costs. These adjustments are made pursuant to IFRS accounting requirements, for more information see note 1 to the condensed consolidated financial statements on page 17 .

In addition, the group and operating review sections of this release present comparative financial information for the Consumer customer-facing unit and BT Group overall on an unaudited 'pro forma' basis. This reflects adjustments that estimate the impact as if trading in relation to BT Sport has been equity accounted in FY23, akin to the Sports JV being in place historically. Analysis on a pro forma basis enables comparison of results on a like-for-like basis.

The Additional Information on page 29 presents a bridge between financial information for the year to 31 March 2023 as published on 3 November 2022, and the comparatives presented in this release. For further information see https://bt.com/about for separate publications covering the formation of Business and cost allocation changes, (published 27 June 2023), and the pro forma adjustments (published 18 October 2022).

Glossary


Adjusted	Adjusted measures (including adjusted revenue, adjusted operating costs, adjusted operating profit, and adjusted basic earnings per share) are before specific items. Adjusted results are consistent with the way that financial performance is measured by management and assist in providing an additional analysis of the reporting trading results of the group.
Adjusted EBITDA	Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, before specific items, share of post tax profits/losses of associates and joint ventures and net finance expense.
Free cash flow	Net cash inflow from operating activities after net capital expenditure.
Capital expenditure	Additions to property, plant and equipment and intangible assets in the period.
Normalised free cash flow	Free cash flow (net cash inflow from operating activities after net capital expenditure) after net interest paid, payment of lease liabilities, net cash flows from the sale of cash flows related to contract assets, monies received as prepayment for the sale of redundant copper, dividends received from non-current assets investments, associates and joint ventures, and net purchase or disposal of non-current asset investments, before pension deficit payments (including their cash tax benefit), payments relating to spectrum, and specific items. It excludes cash flows that are determined at a corporate level independently of ongoing trading operations such as dividends paid, share buybacks, acquisitions and disposals, repayment and raising of debt, cash flows relating to loans with joint ventures, and cash flows relating to the Building Digital UK demand deposit account which have already been accounted for within normalised free cash flow. For non-tax related items the adjustments are made on a pre-tax basis.
Net debt	Loans and other borrowings and lease liabilities (both current and non-current), less current asset investments and cash and cash equivalents, including items which have been classified as held for sale on the balance sheet. Amounts due to joint ventures, loans and borrowings recognised in relation to monies received from the sale of cash flows of contract assets and as prepayment for the forward sale of redundant copper are excluded. Currency denominated balances within net debt are translated into sterling at swapped rates where hedged. Fair value adjustments and accrued interest applied to reflect the effective interest method are removed.
Service revenue	Earned from services delivered using our fixed and mobile network connectivity, including but not limited to, broadband, calls, line rental, TV, residential sport subscriptions, mobile data connectivity, incoming & outgoing mobile calls and roaming by customers of overseas networks.
Re-presented	FY23 comparatives throughout this release have been re-presented to reflect: (i) the merger of our Global and Enterprise business units to form Business; and (ii) the change in our methodology used to allocate shared Network, Digital and support function costs across our units. Refer to the 'Prior period comparatives' section on page 3 and note 1 to the condensed consolidated financial statements on page 17 for more details, and to Additional Information on page 29 for a bridge between previously published FY23 financial information and re-presented numbers.
Pro forma	Unaudited pro forma results estimate the impact on the group as if trading in relation to BT Sport has been equity accounted in FY23, akin to the Sports JV being in place historically. Refer to the 'Prior period comparatives' section on page 3 for more information and to Additional Information on page 29 for a bridge between previously published financial information (re-presented as noted above) and pro forma numbers.
Specific items	Items that in management’s judgement need to be disclosed separately by virtue of their size, nature or incidence. In the current period these relate to changes to goodwill impairment, our assessment of our provision for historic regulatory matters, restructuring charges, historical property-related provisions, divestment-related items and net interest expense on pensions. In determining whether an event or transaction is specific, management considers quantitative as well as qualitative factors such as the frequency or predictability of occurrence.

Forward-looking statements – caution advised

Download PDF - Results for the full year to 31 March 2024

Results for the half year to 30 September 2023

Thu, 02 Nov 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Philip Jansen, Chief Executive, commenting on the results, said

“These results show that BT Group is delivering and on target: we’re rapidly building and connecting customers to our next generation networks, we’re simplifying our products and services, and we’re now seeing predictable and consistent revenue and EBITDA growth.

“We’ve strengthened our competitive position with the launch of both New EE and our renewed strategy in Business, and Openreach has now built full fibre broadband to more than a third of the UK's homes and businesses with a growing connection rate. Our transformation programme has now delivered £2.5bn in annualised savings, well on track to meet our £3bn savings target by FY25.

“Our delivery in the first half means we are confirming our financial outlook for FY24 with normalised free cash flow now expected towards the top end of the guidance range, and we are declaring an interim dividend of 2.31 pence per share. BT Group has a bright future and I’m pleased to be handing the baton to Allison Kirkby early in the new year. She knows the sector, she knows the company and she’s the right person to lead BT Group from this position of operational strength.”

Continued strong execution of our strategy

FTTP build rate accelerated to 66k per week delivering a record of 860k premises passed in the quarter, FTTP footprint is now expanded to 12m premises with a further 6m where initial build is underway
Strong customer demand in Openreach for FTTP with net adds of 364k in Q2, bringing take-up rate to 33%
Openreach broadband ARPU grew by 10% year-on-year due to price rises and increased volumes of FTTP; Openreach broadband line losses of 255k in H1, a 1% decline in the broadband base; whilst we continue to target a decline of around 400k in FY24, softer market conditions increase the risk that losses will be above this level
Consumer broadband ARPU for the year to date increased 4% year-on-year and Consumer postpaid mobile ARPU for the year to date increased 9% year-on-year; churn for the year to date remains stable for both broadband and postpaid mobile at 1.1% and 1.0% respectively
In October 'New EE' was launched with a modern digital platform and a set of converged products and services
Retail FTTP base grew year-on-year by 48% to 2.2m of which Consumer 2.1m and Business 0.1m; 5G base 9.9m, up 42% year-on-year
Cost transformation on track with gross annualised cost savings of £2.5bn since April 2020 against our £3bn target, with a cost to achieve of £1.3bn against a target of £1.6bn
Continued focus on creating standout customer experiences with BT Group NPS of 22.7, up 1.8pts year-on-year

Adjusted¹ Revenue and EBITDA growth:

Reported revenue £10.4bn, in line with the prior year; adjusted¹ revenue £10.4bn, up 3% on a pro forma² basis due to increased fibre-enabled product sales, inflation-linked pricing and improved lower margin trading in Business partially offset by legacy product declines
Adjusted¹ EBITDA £4.1bn, up 6%; and up 4% on a pro forma² basis with revenue flow through and strong cost control more than offsetting cost inflation and one-off items in the prior year; Business EBITDA decline due to increased input costs and legacy high-margin managed contract declines
Reported profit before tax £1.1bn, up 29% largely due to factors driving adjusted¹ EBITDA growth
Reported capital expenditure ('capex') £2.3bn, down 11% with lower fixed network spend driven by lower FTTP build unit costs; cash capex of £2.5bn also down 11%
Net cash inflow from operating activities £2.3bn; normalised free cash flow¹ £0.5bn, up £0.4bn primarily due to £0.2bn increase in adjusted EBITDA¹ and £0.3bn decrease in cash capital expenditure partly offset by £(0.1)bn net working capital outflow; net working capital movements includes £359m from the sale of cash flows of contract assets relating to mobile handsets as well as £(220)m from lower utilisation of a supply chain financing programme
Net debt £19.7bn, (31 March 2023: £18.9bn), increasing mainly due to pension scheme contributions with net free cash flow for the first half of FY24 substantially offsetting the payment for the final dividend of FY23
Gross IAS 19 deficit of £3.9bn, up from £3.1bn at 31 March 2023 mainly due to the increase in real interest rates and narrowing of credit spreads over H1, partly offset by deficit contributions
Interim dividend for FY24 of 2.31 pence per share (pps) in line with our policy of paying 30% of prior year's full year dividend
FY24 Outlook: Adjusted¹ revenue and EBITDA growth on a pro forma basis; capital expenditure excluding spectrum of around £5.0bn; normalised free cash flow towards the top end of £1.0bn-£1.2bn range.

Customer-facing unit updates

_{¹ See Glossary}
_²_{See 'Prior period comparatives' section below for more information on pro forma and re-presented measures}_.
_{³ Net debt was £18,859m at 31 March 2023}

Prior period comparatives

Throughout this release, comparative financial information for the half year to 30 September 2022 ('FY23') has been re-presented to reflect the merger of our Global and Enterprise business units to form Business; and the change in the methodology used to allocate shared Network, Digital and support function costs across our units, which improves the relevance of our financial reporting by better allocating internal costs to the drivers behind those costs. These adjustments are made pursuant to IFRS accounting requirements, for more information see note 1 to the condensed consolidated financial statements on page 15 .

The Additional Information on page 29 presents a bridge between financial information for the half year to 30 September 2022 as published on 3 November 2022, and the comparatives presented in this release. For further information see bt.com/about for separate publications covering the formation of Business and cost allocation changes, (published 27 June 2023), and the pro forma adjustments (published 18 October 2022).

Glossary


Adjusted	Adjusted measures (including adjusted revenue, adjusted operating costs, adjusted operating profit, and adjusted basic earnings per share) are before specific items. Adjusted results are consistent with the way that financial performance is measured by management and assist in providing an additional analysis of the reporting trading results of the group.
Adjusted EBITDA	Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, before specific items, share of post tax profits/losses of associates and joint ventures and net finance expense.
Free cash flow	Net cash inflow from operating activities after net capital expenditure.
Capital expenditure	Additions to property, plant and equipment and intangible assets in the period.
Normalised free cash flow	Free cash flow (net cash inflow from operating activities after net capital expenditure) after net interest paid, payment of lease liabilities, net cash flows from the sale of cash flows related to contract assets, monies received as prepayment for the sale of redundant copper, dividends received from non-current assets investments, associates and joint ventures, and net purchase or disposal of non-current asset investments, before pension deficit payments (including their cash tax benefit), payments relating to spectrum, and specific items. It excludes cash flows that are determined at a corporate level independently of ongoing trading operations such as dividends paid, share buybacks, acquisitions and disposals, repayment and raising of debt, cash flows relating to loans with joint ventures, and cash flows relating to the Building Digital UK demand deposit account which have already been accounted for within normalised free cash flow. For non-tax related items the adjustments are made on a pre-tax basis.
Net debt	Loans and other borrowings and lease liabilities (both current and non-current), less current asset investments and cash and cash equivalents, including items which have been classified as held for sale on the balance sheet. Amounts due to joint ventures, loans and borrowings recognised in relation to monies received from the sale of cash flows of contract assets and as prepayment for the forward sale of redundant copper are excluded. Currency denominated balances within net debt are translated into sterling at swapped rates where hedged. Fair value adjustments and accrued interest applied to reflect the effective interest method are removed.
Service revenue	Earned from services delivered using our fixed and mobile network connectivity, including but not limited to, broadband, calls, line rental, TV, residential sport subscriptions, mobile data connectivity, incoming & outgoing mobile calls and roaming by customers of overseas networks.
Re-presented	FY23 comparatives throughout this release have been re-presented to reflect: (i) the merger of our Global and Enterprise business units to form Business; and (ii) the change in our methodology used to allocate shared Network, Digital and support function costs across our units. Refer to the 'Prior period comparatives' section on page 2 and note 1 to the condensed consolidated financial statements on page 15 for more details, and to Additional Information on page 29 for a bridge between previously published FY23 financial information and re-presented numbers.
Pro forma	Unaudited pro forma results estimate the impact on the group as if trading in relation to BT Sport has been equity accounted in FY23, akin to the Sports JV being in place historically. Refer to the 'Prior period comparatives' section on page 2 for more information and to Additional Information on page 29 for a bridge between previously published financial information (re-presented as noted above) and pro forma numbers.
Specific items	Items that in management’s judgement need to be disclosed separately by virtue of their size, nature or incidence. In the current period these relate to changes to our assessment of our provision for historic regulatory matters, restructuring charges, divestment-related items and net interest expense on pensions.

Forward-looking statements – caution advised

Download PDF - Results for the half year to 30 September 2023

Trading update for the three months to 30 June 2023

Thu, 27 Jul 2023 07:00:00 +0100

Philip Jansen, Chief Executive, commenting on the results, said

“We’ve made a strong start to the year, in what remains a very competitive market, with improved customer satisfaction, pro forma revenue growth in all of our business units and pro forma group EBITDA up by 5%. Openreach is now 44% of the way through its full fibre build, and customer demand has continued to grow with a total network take-up rate of 32%. Consumer is seeing solid pro forma growth driven by pricing and mix, as customers choose higher performance connections; and Business grew its order book, driving revenue growth for the combined unit. We continue to drive transformation across the group, and while there remains much to do it’s clear that our strategy is working and BT Group is set up for success.”

Strong start to the year:

FTTP footprint expanded to 11m premises, 44% completion of 25m target, with a further c.6.2m where initial build is underway; 718k premises passed in the quarter at an average build rate of 55k per week
Customer demand in Openreach for FTTP increased with Q1 orders up 34% year-on-year and net adds of 383k, bringing network take-up rate to 32%; total FTTP connections grew to 3.5m
Openreach broadband ARPU grew by 10.2% year-on-year due to price rises and increased volumes of FTTP; Openreach broadband base down 126k in Q1 due to competitor losses combined with a weak broadband market and communications providers ceasing copper lines; we continue to expect the Openreach broadband base to decline by around 400k in FY24
Consumer broadband ARPU increased 5% year-on-year to £42.0 and Consumer postpaid mobile ARPU increased 9% year-on-year to £19.7, both driven by CPI-linked pricing; churn remains stable for broadband and postpaid mobile at 1.1% and 1.0% respectively
Retail FTTP base grew year-on-year by 50% to 2.0m of which Consumer 1.9m and Business 0.1m; 5G base 9.2m, up 53% year-on-year
Business performance reflects positive momentum in SMB but declines in CPS, Global and Wholesale due to higher input costs and legacy high-margin managed contract declines
Continued focus on customer satisfaction and delivery of excellent value for money with BT Group NPS of 23.7 up 1.8pts year-on-year

Continued pro forma revenue and EBITDA growth:

Pro forma adjusted¹ revenue £5.2bn, up 4% on Q1 FY23 due to increased fibre-enabled product sales and price increases in Openreach, increased service revenue in Consumer with 2023 annual contractual price rises being aided by higher FTTP base and higher roaming, and improved equipment trading in Business, offset partially by legacy product declines; reported revenue was up 1%
Pro forma adjusted¹ EBITDA £2.0bn, up 5% with revenue flow through and cost control more than offsetting cost inflation; Business EBITDA decline due to increased input costs and legacy high-margin managed contract declines
Reported profit before tax of £536m, up 11% primarily due to EBITDA growth partially offset by specific items
Reconfirming all FY24 outlook metrics

_{¹ See Glossary}

Glossary

Our commentary focuses on the trading results on an adjusted pro forma basis. Reported revenue and reported profit before tax are the equivalent unadjusted or statutory measures and are reconciled in pages 233 to 235 of the Annual Report 2023.


Adjusted	Before specific items. Adjusted results are consistent with the way that financial performance is measured by management and assist in providing an additional analysis of the reporting trading results of the group.
Adjusted EBITDA	Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, before specific items, share of post tax profits/losses of associates and joint ventures and net finance expense.
Pro forma	Pro forma results estimate the impact on the group as if trading in relation to BT Sport had been equity accounted for in Q1 FY23, akin to the BT Sport joint venture being in place historically. Please refer to the press release of 3 November 2022 for a bridge between financial information on a reported basis and a Sports JV pro forma basis at the half year to 30 September 2022.
Restated	Results were restated in June 2023 to reflect: i) the merger of our Global and Enterprise units to form Business; and ii) the change in our methodology used to allocate shared Network, Digital and support function costs across our units, reported within operating costs and capex (to more closely align the recharges received by each unit to their actual consumption). Please refer to disclosures published for the formation of Business and adjustments to central cost allocations on 27 June 2023.
Specific items	Items that in management’s judgement need to be disclosed separately by virtue of their size, nature or incidence. In the current period these relate to changes to our assessment of our provision for historical regulatory matters, restructuring charges, divestment-related items and net interest expense on pensions.

We are scheduled to announce the second quarter and half year results for FY24 on 2 November 2023.

Forward-looking statements – caution advised

Download PDF - Trading update for the three months to 30 June 2023

Trading update for the nine months to 31 December 2022

Thu, 02 Feb 2023 07:01:00 +0000

Philip Jansen, Chief Executive, commenting on the results, said

“We’ve grown revenue and EBITDA on a pro forma, like-for-like basis, despite a challenging economic backdrop, and we’re transforming BT Group for the benefit of our customers. We continue to accelerate our investments in the UK’s leading next generation networks; we're combining our Enterprise and Global operations to create BT Business, a single, strengthened B2B unit; and we’re going further on cutting costs to deliver £3 billion in annualised savings by the end of FY25.

“On full fibre, we’re building - and now connecting - like fury: 9.6 million premises reached to date, with 29% already connected, and our 5G mobile network now reaches 60% of the UK population.

“In December we awarded a cost-of-living pay rise to 85% of our UK colleagues, reaching an agreement with our union partners that we will all lean into our ongoing transformation plans. Despite extraordinary energy costs and other inflationary headwinds, we are reaffirming our outlook for the year.”

Key strategic developments:

Announced the merger of Enterprise and Global to create BT Business, to enhance value for all B2B customers, strengthen our competitive position and deliver material synergies as part of our £3bn cost-saving target
Announced CPI-linked price increases to offset cost inflation and pay for increased data usage and investment in our next generation networks
Additional action taken on operating costs to mitigate unforeseen energy, pay and equipment costs
Record FTTP build of 810k premises passed in the quarter at an average build rate of 62k per week; 38% of our 25m FTTP build completed
Customer demand for FTTP extremely strong with orders up 51% year on year; take up³ rate grew to 29% with net adds of 324k in the quarter; broadband rental ARPU up 7.6% year on year
Openreach announced improved discounts for FTTP connection and rental charges, from April 2023, to support accelerated take up³ of FTTP; announced the launch of 1.2Gbps and 1.8Gbps products
Record quarterly growth in FTTP base in Consumer, up 155k to 1.6m; 5G ready base now 8.5m; churn remains stable in a competitive market; RootMetrics named EE the UK's best mobile network for a 19th time running
Operational metrics recovering as industrial action ended with cost of living pay rise

Reaffirmed all outlook metrics despite inflationary headwinds:

Revenue £15.6bn, down 1% as price increases and improved trading in Openreach and Consumer were offset by lower strategic equipment sales in Global, migration of a MVNO customer, removal of BT Sport revenue, and legacy product declines; on a Sports Joint Venture ('JV') pro forma¹ basis adjusted revenue was up £65m
Adjusted¹ EBITDA £5.9bn, up 3% due to tight cost control and the removal of BT Sport costs, offset by revenue declines and inflationary cost pressures; on a Sports JV pro forma¹ basis adjusted EBITDA was up 2%
Reported profit before tax £1.3bn, down 15% due to increased depreciation offsetting EBITDA growth
Reported capital expenditure (capex) £3.9bn, up 3% due to increased Openreach investment in fixed network infrastructure offsetting prior-year investment in spectrum; capex excluding spectrum payments up 19%; cash capex was £4.1bn, up 19%; significantly lower capex in Q4 given unwind of Openreach work in progress
Normalised free cash flow¹ £0.1bn, down £0.8bn due to increased cash capex and adverse working capital phasing primarily driven by collections timings, partially offset by a tax refund and EBITDA growth
Net debt was £19.2bn, £1.2bn higher than at 31 March 2022 with normalised free cash flow more than offset by pension scheme contributions and payment of the final dividend
Financial outlook reaffirmed; normalised free cash flow heavily weighted to Q4, reflecting more front-ended capex and back-ended EBITDA and receivable collections than usual

_{¹ See Glossary}
_{² Net debt was £18,009m at 31 March 2022}
_{³ FTTP take up defined as customers that have been provisioned on the FTTP network}

Overview of the nine months to 31 December 2022

Customer-facing unit updates

Consumer: Strong performance in tough market conditions, first full quarter after completion of BT Sport JV

Revenue was flat due to the BT Sport disposal offsetting service revenue¹ growth; on a Sports JV pro forma¹ basis revenue was up 2%, with a 4% growth in service revenue¹ driven by the 2022 annual contractual price rise which was aided by a higher FTTP base, along with higher roaming, offset by lower mobile equipment sales due to reduced market activity
EBITDA was up 15% due to the BT Sport disposal and increased mobile and fixed service revenue¹ and tight cost management including lower indirect mobile commissions; on a Sports JV pro forma¹ basis EBITDA was up 9%
Strong demand for next generation products with highest ever quarterly growth in FTTP base, with an increase of 155k; FTTP base now 1.6m, 5G ready base now 8.5m
Churn continues to remain stable in a competitive market
Strong support for vulnerable customers with EE launching its first mobile social tariff in November alongside BT Home Essentials; 3m customers including customers on social and discounted tariffs excluded from April 2023 price increases

Enterprise: Revenue and EBITDA quarterly progression in FY23 continues

Revenue decline due to the migration of a MVNO customer and legacy product declines, partially offset by growth in SME and SoHo
EBITDA decline due to lower revenue and revenue mix, partially offset by tight cost control and our cost transformation programmes
The overall revenue and EBITDA trend continued to improve into Q3, reflecting continued growth in both the SME and SoHo segments and the timing of contract revenue recognition in Wholesale and ESN
Continued growth in both mobile and VoIP in the year to date, adding 65k connections to our mobile base and 93k connections to our VoIP base
Retail order intake was £2.8bn on a 12-month rolling basis, up 4% reflecting growth in new business partially offset by contract re-signs; Wholesale order intake was £0.7bn, down 28%
Official opening of new cyber Security Operations Centre in Belfast following contract win with the Department of Finance, Northern Ireland
Contract wins with HMRC to replace its existing in house IT services provider with a managed networks solution and the Ministry of Defence to upgrade its legacy Broadband and ADSL estate

Global: Financial performance continues to stabilise as improved growth portfolio and strong cost transformation offset lower equipment sales and inflationary pressures

Revenue decline mainly due to lower strategic equipment sales and the impact of prior year divestments, partly offset by a £95m positive foreign exchange movement; revenue excluding divestments, one-offs and foreign exchange was down 5%
EBITDA decline reflected lower revenue and inflationary pressures, partly offset by lower operating costs from ongoing modernisation, cost control and one-offs; EBITDA excluding divestments, one-offs and foreign exchange was down 5%
On a rolling 12-month basis order intake was £2.9bn, down 10%; the proportion of our growth product portfolio represents 53% of total orders won in the year
During the quarter we launched new digital tools to help customers monitor and optimise energy and carbon use across multi-cloud networks

Openreach: Revenue and EBITDA growth; FTTP connections continue to grow

Revenue growth due to price increases and increased sales of fibre-enabled products and Ethernet, partially offset by decline in physical lines and decrease in chargeable repairs due to lower repair volumes
EBITDA growth from revenue flow through and lower operating costs driven by improved repair and efficiency programmes partially offset by higher FTTP provisioning activity, and pay inflation
Broadband base down 10k in Q3 (Q3 FY22: 45k growth) with YoY position impacted by reduced broadband market growth; competitor churn continues to be in line with our expectations and average monthly rental ARPU grew by c.£1 YoY (7.6%) due to increased volumes of FTTP
Record FTTP build of 810k premises passed in the quarter at an average build rate of 62k per week; we have completed 38% of our 25m build
Customer demand for FTTP extremely strong with orders up 51% year on year; take up rate grew to 29% with net adds of 324k in the quarter; base now c.2.7m (29% of premises passed)
Almost 50% of the Openreach broadband base where we built network 24 months ago are now on FTTP
Announced improved discounts for FTTP connection and rental charges, from April 2023, to support accelerated take up² of FTTP; announced the launch of 1.2Gbps and 1.8Gbps products
FTTP footprint of 9.6m with a further 6m where initial build is underway; now passed 3m premises in rural locations

_{¹See Glossary. Commentary on revenue and EBITDA is based on adjusted measures.}
_{² FTTP take up defined as customers that have been provisioned on the FTTP network.}

Glossary
Adjusted	Before specific items. Adjusted results are consistent with the way that financial performance is measured by management and assist in providing an additional analysis of the reporting trading results of the group.
EBITDA	Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation.
Adjusted EBITDA	EBITDA before specific items, share of post tax profits/losses of associates and joint ventures and net non-interest related finance expense.
Free cash flow	Net cash inflow from operating activities after net capital expenditure.
Capital expenditure	Additions to property, plant and equipment and intangible assets in the period.
Normalised free cash flow	Free cash flow (net cash inflow from operating activities after net capital expenditure) after net interest paid and payment of lease liabilities, before pension deficit payments (including their cash tax benefit), payments relating to spectrum, and specific items. It excludes cash flows that are determined at a corporate level independently of ongoing trading operations such as dividends paid, share buybacks, acquisitions and disposals, repayment and raising of debt, cash flows relating to loans with joint ventures, and cash flows relating to the Building Digital UK demand deposit account which have already been accounted for within normalised free cash flow. For non-tax related items the adjustments are made on a pre-tax basis.
Net debt	Loans and other borrowings and lease liabilities (both current and non-current), less current asset investments and cash and cash equivalents, including items which have been classified as held for sale on the balance sheet. Currency denominated balances within net debt are translated into sterling at swapped rates where hedged. Fair value adjustments and accrued interest applied to reflect the effective interest method are removed. Amounts due to or from joint ventures held within current asset investments or loans and borrowings are also excluded.
Service revenue	Earned from services delivered using our fixed and mobile network connectivity, including but not limited to, broadband, calls, line rental, TV, residential BT Sport subscriptions, mobile data connectivity, incoming & outgoing mobile calls and roaming by customers of overseas networks.
Sports JV pro forma	On 1 September 2022 BT Group and Warner Bros. Discovery announced completion of their transaction to form a 50:50 joint venture (JV) combining the assets of BT Sport and Eurosport UK. Financial information stated as pro forma is unaudited and is presented to estimate the impact on the group as if trading in relation to BT Sport had been equity accounted for in previous periods, akin to the JV being in place historically. Please refer to the press release on 3 November 2022 for a bridge between financial information on a reported basis and a Sports JV pro forma basis at the half year to 30 September 2022.
Specific items	Items that in management’s judgement need to be disclosed separately by virtue of their size, nature or incidence. In the current period these relate to changes to our assessment of our provision for historic regulatory matters, restructuring charges, divestment-related items and net interest expense on pensions.

Our commentary focuses on the trading results on an adjusted basis, which is a non-GAAP measure, being before specific items. The directors believe that presentation of the group’s results in this way is relevant to an understanding of the group’s financial performance as specific items are those that in management’s judgement need to be disclosed by virtue of their size, nature or incidence. This is consistent with the way that financial performance is measured by management and reported to the Board and the Executive Committee and assists in providing a meaningful analysis of the trading results of the group. In determining whether an event or transaction is specific, management considers quantitative as well as qualitative factors such as the frequency or predictability of occurrence. Reported revenue, reported operating costs, reported operating profit and reported profit before tax are the equivalent unadjusted or statutory measures.

Results for the half year to 30 September 2022

Thu, 03 Nov 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Philip Jansen, Chief Executive, commenting on the results, said

“BT Group remains on the front foot in these turbulent times. Our strategy is working, we're executing against our plan and we're confident that we'll deliver our long-term ambition while underpinning economic growth in the UK.

“Our financial performance is on track; we grew revenue and EBITDA in the first six months of the year and we remain laser focused on modernising and simplifying BT Group. Given the current high inflationary environment, including significantly increased energy prices, we need to take additional action on our costs to maintain the cash flow needed to support our network investments. As a result, we are increasing our cost savings target from £2.5bn to £3.0bn by the end of FY25.

“High-quality connectivity has never been more important for our customers and our products provide great value for money.

“We continue to drive ahead with our strategy designed to deliver consistent and predictable revenue and EBITDA growth, expand cash flow and underpin our progressive dividend policy over the longer-term.”

Key strategic developments:

We are firmly on track in delivering our strategy despite short-term macroeconomic pressures; we are investing to sustain network leadership, improving customer experience and reducing our costs to strengthen our competitive position
FTTP build passed 8.8m premises, including 2.8m in rural areas, with initial build underway on a further 6m premises; weekly build rate averaging 62k premises in Q2
FTTP connections ahead of plan; Q2 net adds of 331k with total take up of 27%
Openreach broadband base down 89k in Q2 (Q2 FY22: net adds of 29k) due to reduced broadband market growth and c.40k impact from industrial action, with competitor churn in line with our expectations; average monthly rental ARPU grew by c.£1 year on year due to continued increase in fibre-enabled broadband
Openreach reviewing wholesale pricing to accelerate migration to FTTP
EE's 5G network continues to grow with 5G deployed in nearly all UK major towns and cities
Completed Sports JV to create one of the most extensive portfolios of premium sports in the UK
Delivered gross annualised cost savings of £1.7bn since April 2020 with total cost to achieve of £0.9bn; FY25 target increased from £2.5bn to £3.0bn in response to cost inflation, with total cost to achieve of £1.6bn

Revenue and EBITDA growth and interim dividend at 2.31pps confirmed

Revenue £10.4bn, up 1% due to growth in Consumer and Openreach partially offset by legacy declines in large corporate customers in Enterprise, lower equipment sales in Global and the impact of the BT Sport disposal
Adjusted¹ EBITDA £3.9bn, up 3% due to revenue growth, continued strong cost control and some one-off items, partially offset by increased energy costs and cost inflation
Reported profit before tax £0.8bn, down 18% due to increased depreciation from network build and higher specific costs offsetting adjusted¹ EBITDA growth
Reported capital expenditure £2.6bn, up 2% due to increased Openreach investments in fixed network infrastructure offsetting a decline in spectrum; capital expenditure excluding spectrum payments up 26%
Net cash inflow from operating activities £2.9bn; normalised free cash flow¹ £0.1bn, down £0.3bn primarily reflecting higher cash capex partially offset by increased EBITDA and working capital movements including stronger collections and movement in sports rights
Gross IAS 19 deficit of £1.7bn, up from £1.1bn at 31 March 2022 mainly due to the impact of higher real gilt yields partly offset by deficit contributions; BT Pension Scheme roll-forward funding deficit was £4.4bn at end of June 2022, and not adversely impacted by gilt market volatility in late September
FY23 capex outlook revised from c.£4.8bn to c.£5.0bn due to higher fibre connections and inflation, enabled by a £0.2bn tax refund in October; capex in subsequent years will be c.£4.8bn over remainder of the peak fibre build
Normalised free cash flow¹ expected to outturn towards the lower end of the £1.3bn-£1.5bn range
Interim dividend of 2.31 pence per share in line with our policy

Customer-facing unit updates

_{¹See Glossary}
_{²Net debt was £18,009m at 31 March 2022}
_{n/m = not meaningful}

Glossary
Adjusted	Before specific items. Adjusted results are consistent with the way that financial performance is measured by management and assist in providing an additional analysis of the reporting trading results of the group.
EBITDA	Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation.
Adjusted EBITDA	EBITDA before specific items, share of post tax profits/losses of associates and joint ventures and net non-interest related finance expense.
Free cash flow	Net cash inflow from operating activities after net capital expenditure.
Capital expenditure	Additions to property, plant and equipment and intangible assets in the period.
Normalised free cash flow	Free cash flow (net cash inflow from operating activities after net capital expenditure) after net interest paid and payment of lease liabilities, before pension deficit payments (including their cash tax benefit), payments relating to spectrum, and specific items. It excludes cash flows that are determined at a corporate level independently of ongoing trading operations such as dividends, share buybacks, acquisitions and disposals, and repayment and raising of debt, and cash flows relating to the Building Digital UK demand deposit account which have already been accounted for within normalised free cash flow. For non-tax related items the adjustments are made on a pre-tax basis.
Net debt	Loans and other borrowings and lease liabilities (both current and non-current), less current asset investments and cash and cash equivalents, including items which have been classified as held for sale on the balance sheet. Currency denominated balances within net debt are translated into sterling at swapped rates where hedged. Fair value adjustments and accrued interest applied to reflect the effective interest method are removed. Amounts due to or from joint ventures held within current asset investments or loans and borrowings are also excluded.
Sports JV pro forma	On 1 September 2022 BT Group and Warner Bros. Discovery announced completion of their transaction to form a 50:50 joint venture (JV) combining the assets of BT Sport and Eurosport UK. Financial information stated as pro forma is unaudited and is presented to estimate the impact on the group as if trading in relation to BT Sport had been equity accounted for in previous periods, akin to the JV being in place historically. Please refer to Additional Information on page 32 for a bridge between financial information on a reported basis and a Sports JV pro forma basis.
Specific items	Items that in management’s judgement need to be disclosed separately by virtue of their size, nature or incidence. In the current period these relate to changes to our assessment of our provision for historic regulatory matters, restructuring charges, divestment-related items and net interest expense on pensions.

Download - Results for the half year to 30 September 2022

Trading update for the three months to 30 June 2022

Thu, 28 Jul 2022 07:00:00 +0100

Philip Jansen, Chief Executive, commenting on the results, said

“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.

“We continued to grow the number of BT and EE customers connected to our next generation networks. We're building our full fibre broadband network faster than ever and we're seeing record customer connections - both ahead of our own expectations. Openreach's full fibre network now reaches over 8 million homes and businesses across the UK and we anticipate increasing our annual build from 2.6 million premises last year to around 3.5 million this year. EE's 5G network covers more than 55% of the country’s population. We’re achieving continued high customer satisfaction scores thanks to our much improved customer service and the value for money that our products and services represent.

“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.”

Key strategic developments:

Fibre build and connection continues at pace, beyond our expectations, with record quarterly FTTP build of 763k and net adds of 302k
Finalised our FTTP co-provisioning agreement with Sky
EE was voted best network by RootMetrics for the ninth year running and came top in every category measured; our 5G ready base is now at 7.7m
Price rises to support investment in the network and offset cost inflation; we have continued to raise awareness of our Home Essentials social tariff with prices frozen this year
Consumer churn and complaints remain low with high levels of service
BT Sport remains home of UEFA club competitions, including the UEFA Champions League, until 2027
The CMA¹ approved the BT Group plc agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. to form a 50:50 sports broadcasting joint venture
Contingency plans in place to minimise disruption and keep customers connected during CWU² strike action

Revenue and EBITDA growth, no change to full year outlook:

Revenue £5.1bn, up 1% due to improved pricing and trading in Consumer and Openreach, offset by the migration of a wholesale MVNO customer which concluded in FY22 and by continued legacy product declines and challenging market conditions impacting large corporate customers in Enterprise and Global.
Adjusted³ EBITDA £1.9bn, up 2% primarily due to flow through from revenue and continued strong cost control
Reported profit before tax £0.5bn, down 10% due to increased depreciation offsetting EBITDA growth
Reported capital expenditure down 17% to £1.3bn, due to prior year investment in spectrum; capital expenditure excluding spectrum payments up 24% to £1.3bn, primarily due to increased investments on FTTP build and provision, and cost inflation
Normalised free cash flow³ £(0.2)bn, down £162m primarily reflecting increased cash capital expenditure
Net financial debt (which excludes lease liabilities) was £13.2bn and net debt³ was £18.9bn at 30 June 2022, both £0.9bn higher than at 31 March 2022 driven by pensions contributions and lower cash flows
No change to FY23 outlook: Revenue growth, at least £7.9bn EBITDA, around £4.8bn capital expenditure and between £1.3bn-£1.5bn normalised free cash flow

_{¹ Competition and Markets Authority}
_{² Communications Workers Union}
_{³ See Glossary}
_{⁴ Net debt was £18,009m at 31 March 2022}

Overview of the three months to 30 June 2022

Customer-facing unit updates

_{¹See Glossary. Commentary on revenue and EBITDA is based on adjusted measures.}

Consumer: Strong financial performance and FTTP growth; churn remains near record lows

Revenue growth with improved fixed and mobile service revenues, now returning close to levels in the quarter before the start of the pandemic; this was helped by the annual contractual price rise in April and strong Sport revenues including the Fury-Whyte event
EBITDA increased with revenue growth, tight cost management and lower indirect mobile commissions
Churn remains near record lows with continued low complaints to Ofcom and high levels of service
Highest ever quarterly growth in FTTP base with increase of 118k, 5G ready base now at 7.7m
The CMA approved the BT Group plc agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. to form a 50:50 sports broadcasting joint venture

Enterprise: Challenging market conditions continue in large corporates offsetting growth in other segments

Revenue decrease primarily due to challenging market conditions in large corporates, ongoing legacy product declines and the migration of a wholesale MVNO customer which concluded in FY22
EBITDA decrease as a result of reduction in revenue, with the mix of revenue driving a further downside; Q1 FY22 also saw an asset disposal along with strong performance in ESN
SoHo and SME segments saw revenue and EBITDA growth
Retail order intake was £2.6bn on a 12-month rolling basis, down 8% with growth in new business offset by decline in contract re-signs; wholesale order intake was £1.0bn, up 8%
Concluded an agreement to extend the existing MVNO agreement with Telecom Plus (UW), and Sellafield Ltd has awarded a major new contract to BT for managed network services

Global: Challenging market conditions and impact of prior year divestments partly offset by strong cost transformation

Revenue decline due to impact of prior year divestments and challenging market conditions partly offset by £18m foreign exchange movement; revenue excluding divestments, one-offs and foreign exchange was down 1%
EBITDA decline reflected lower revenues, the impact of divestments and inflationary pressures offset by lower operating costs from ongoing modernisation, cost control and one-offs; EBITDA excluding divestments, one-offs and foreign exchange was down 8%
Order intake was £3.7bn on a 12-month rolling basis, up 6% with our growth product portfolio representing over half of total orders won in the quarter
Announced a strategic alliance with MTN to enhance communications services in Africa, in which cloud-based security and consultancy, managed connectivity and voice services will be delivered seamlessly as part of MTN’s Enterprise portfolio. We also launched Connect Cloud Edge in partnership with Equinix, a next-generation cloud connectivity solution designed to accelerate our customers' digital transformation

Openreach: Revenue and EBITDA growth; FTTP build accelerating

Revenue growth driven by price increases and increased sales in fibre-enabled products and Ethernet, partially offset by decline in physical lines and decrease in chargeable repairs due to lower repair volumes; in FY22 price increases started in Q2
EBITDA growth from revenue flow through and lower operating costs driven by lower repair and efficiency programmes, partially offset by higher FTTP provisioning activity and pay inflation
Record FTTP build of 763k premises passed in the quarter at an average build rate of 59k per week, around a third of the way through our 25m build; we now have a footprint of over 8m including 2.5m in rural locations
Record growth in FTTP take up with base of c.2.1m, weekly net adds of 23k and a take up rate of 26%
Achieved all 30 of the Ofcom Quality of Service measures for Q1, with higher standards set for FY23; delivered improved year on year performance for on time copper and FTTP provision of 94%
Finalised our FTTP co-provisioning agreement with Sky in a long-term deal

Glossary
Adjusted	Before specific items. Adjusted results are consistent with the way that financial performance is measured by management and assist in providing an additional analysis of the reporting trading results of the group.
EBITDA	Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation.
Adjusted EBITDA	EBITDA before specific items, share of post tax profits/losses of associates and joint ventures and net non-interest related finance expense.
Free cash flow	Net cash inflow from operating activities after net capital expenditure.
Capital expenditure	Additions to property, plant and equipment and intangible assets in the period.
Normalised free cash flow	Free cash flow (net cash inflow from operating activities after net capital expenditure) after net interest paid and payment of lease liabilities, before pension deficit payments (including cash tax benefit), payments relating to spectrum, and specific items. For non-tax related items the adjustments are made on a pre-tax basis. It excludes cash flows that are determined at a corporate level independently of ongoing trading operations such as dividends, share buybacks, acquisitions and disposals, and repayment and raising of debt.
Net debt	Loans and other borrowings and lease liabilities (both current and non-current), less current asset investments and cash and cash equivalents, including items which have been classified as held for sale on the balance sheet. Currency denominated balances within net debt are translated into sterling at swapped rates where hedged. Fair value adjustments and accrued interest applied to reflect the effective interest method are removed.
Specific items	Items that in management’s judgement need to be disclosed separately by virtue of their size, nature or incidence. In the current period these relate to changes to our assessment of our provision for historic regulatory matters, restructuring charges, divestment-related items and net interest expense on pensions.

Download - Trading update for the three months to 30 June 2022

Results for the full year to 31 March 2022

Thu, 12 May 2022 07:01:00 +0100

BT Group plc (BT.L) today announced its results for the full year to 31 March 2022.

Philip Jansen, Chief Executive, commenting on the results, said

“BT Group has again delivered a strong operational performance thanks to the efforts of our colleagues across the business. Openreach continues to build like fury, having now passed 7.2m premises with 1.8m connections; a strong and growing early take-up rate of 25%. Meanwhile, our 5G network now covers more than 50% of the UK population. We have the best networks in the UK and we’re continuing to invest at an unprecedented pace to provide unrivalled connectivity for our customers. At the same time we’re seeing record customer satisfaction scores across the business.

“We have finalised the sports joint venture with Warner Bros. Discovery to improve our content offering to customers, aligning our business with a new global content powerhouse. Separately, we have strengthened our strategic partnership and key customer relationship with Sky, having now extended our reciprocal channel supply deal into the next decade and agreed a MoU to extend our co-provisioning agreement.

“Our modernisation continues at pace and we are extending our cost savings target of £2bn by end FY24 to £2.5bn by end FY25. We delivered EBITDA growth of 2% this year as strong savings from our modernisation programme more than offset weaker revenues from our enterprise businesses due to well-known market challenges.

“While the economic outlook remains challenging, we’re continuing to invest for the future and I am confident that BT Group is on the right track. As a result, we are today reconfirming our FY23 outlook for revenue growth, EBITDA of at least £7.9bn and also the reinstatement of our full year FY22 dividend, as promised, at 7.7 pence per share.”

Strong progress in strategic priorities:

Positive leading indicators: Highest ever BT Group NPS results; low Ofcom complaints; churn near record lows
BT Group and Warner Bros. Discovery agreed to form a new premium sports joint venture bringing together BT Sport and Eurosport UK
Agreed with Sky a new longer-term reciprocal channel supply deal beyond 2030
Openreach signed a MoU on a framework with Sky on FTTP co-provisioning; Sky engineers to complete the majority of their FTTP in-premises provisioning activities on Openreach’s FTTP network
FTTP footprint at 7.2m with annualised Q4 build rate of over 3m premises; take up of 1.8m driven by Equinox
5G network now covers over 50% of the UK population; our 5G ready customer base is over 7.2m and EE is once again named as having the best 5G and 4G network by RootMetrics
Achieved gross annualised cost savings now totalling £1.5bn; increased target to £2.5bn by end FY25, within the previously communicated cost to achieve of £1.3bn

Adjusted EBITDA growth and return of full year dividend:

Revenue £20.9bn, down 2%, reflecting revenue decline in Enterprise and Global offset by growth in Openreach, with Consumer flat for the year and returning to growth in Q4; adjusted¹ revenue down 2%
Adjusted¹ EBITDA £7.6bn, up 2%, with revenue decline more than offset by lower costs from our modernisation programmes, tight cost management, and lower indirect commissions
Reported profit before tax £2.0bn, up 9%, due to increased EBITDA offsetting higher finance expense
Reported profit after tax £1.3bn, down 13%, due to remeasurement of our deferred tax balance
Net cash inflow from operating activities £5.9bn; normalised free cash flow¹ £1.4bn, down 5%, due to higher cash capital expenditure, offset by higher EBITDA and lower tax and lease payments
Capital expenditure £5.3bn, up 25%. Capital expenditure excluding spectrum £4.8bn, up 14% primarily due to continued higher spend on our fibre infrastructure and mobile networks
IAS 19 gross pensions deficit £1.1bn, (31 March 2021: £5.1bn) due to an increase in real discount rate, deficit contributions paid, changes to demographic assumptions and positive asset returns
FY22 final dividend declared at 5.39p per share, bringing the full year total, as promised, to 7.70p per share
Outlook for FY23: adjusted¹ revenue to grow year on year; adjusted¹ EBITDA of at least £7.9bn; capital expenditure excluding spectrum of around £4.8bn; normalised free cash flow of £1.3bn to £1.5bn.

_{¹ See Glossary.}
_{² Includes investment in spectrum of £479m.}

Glossary of alternative performance measure
Adjusted	Before specific items. Adjusted results are consistent with the way that financial performance is measured by management and assist in providing an additional analysis of the reported trading results of the Group.
EBITDA	Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation.
Adjusted EBITDA	EBITDA before specific items, share of post tax profits/losses of associates and joint ventures and net non-interest related finance expense.
Free cash flow	Net cash inflow from operating activities after net capital expenditure.
Capital expenditure	Additions to property, plant and equipment and intangible assets in the period.
Normalised free cash flow	Free cash flow (net cash inflow from operating activities after net capital expenditure) after net interest paid and payment of lease liabilities, before pension deficit payments (including cash tax benefit), payments relating to spectrum, and specific items. For non-tax related items the adjustments are made on a pre-tax basis. It excludes cash flows that are determined at a corporate level independently of ongoing trading operations such as dividends, share buybacks, acquisitions and disposals, and repayment and raising of debt.
Net debt	Loans and other borrowings and lease liabilities (both current and non-current), less current asset investments and cash and cash equivalents, including items which have been classified as held for sale on the balance sheet. Currency denominated balances within net debt are translated into sterling at swapped rates where hedged. Fair value adjustments and accrued interest applied to reflect the effective interest method are removed.
Specific items	Items that in management’s judgement need to be disclosed separately by virtue of their size, nature or incidence. In the current period these relate to retrospective regulatory matters, restructuring charges, divestment-related items, Covid-19 related items, net interest expense on pensions, tax charge on specific items and the impact of the change in tax rate on our deferred tax balances.
Group NPS	Group NPS tracks changes in our customers' perceptions of BT. This is a combined measure of 'promoters' minus 'detractors' across our business units. Group NPS measures Net Promoter Score in our retail business and Net Satisfaction in our wholesale business.
5G ready	EE consumer customers receiving or capable of receiving 5G network connection using one or both of a 5G enabled handset and a 5G enabled SIM.

We assess the performance of the Group using a variety of alternative performance measures. Reconciliations from the most directly comparable IFRS measures are in Additional Information.

Download - Results for the full year to 31 March 2022

Trading update results for the nine months to 31 December 2021

Thu, 03 Feb 2022 07:00:00 +0000

BT Group plc (BT.L) today announced its trading update for the nine months to 31 December 2021.

Philip Jansen, Chief Executive, commenting on the results, said

“BT has had a good quarter with encouraging market share performance, and we continued to make significant improvements in customer service, although revenue from our enterprise divisions was softer than we expected.

We had another record-breaking quarter on our full fibre build and a pleasing 37% increase in FTTP connections following the launch of Openreach’s wholesale pricing offer. Our 5G build is also on track and now covers over 40% of the UK population with independently verified network leadership.

Today sees two important strategic partnership announcements on how BT moves forward in the fast-evolving content and TV business. The agreement in principle with Sky will provide our customers more choice and more flexibility for the next decade. Separately, we are excited at the prospect of a new joint venture between BT Sport and Eurosport UK as we enter into exclusive discussions with Discovery.”

Strong operating momentum delivered by record customer experience and FTTP build:

Reached agreement in principle with Sky for a new longer-term reciprocal channel supply deal to beyond 2030
Separately, entered exclusive discussions with Discovery to create a joint venture with BT Sport and Eurosport UK
Delivered record FTTP build of 662k at an average rate of over 50k per week in the quarter with footprint now at 6.5m, including 2m rural premises
FTTP take up accelerated to 1.5m premises driven by Openreach's Equinox offer
5G ready customer base over 6.4m; 5G now covers more than 40% of the UK population
According to RootMetrics, EE again has the UK's best 4G and 5G networks
Highest ever NPS result for BT Group

Continued EBITDA growth with revenue challenges due to delayed Covid-19 recovery and supply chain issues¹:

Revenue £15,676m, down 2%; declines primarily in Global and Enterprise partly offset by growth in Openreach; adjusted² revenue down 3%
Adjusted² EBITDA £5,708m, up 2%; driven by tight cost management, lower indirect commissions and higher revenue from Ethernet and fibre-enabled products, partly offset by declining revenue in Global and Enterprise
Reported profit before tax £1,537m, down 3%, primarily due to higher finance expenses and depreciation and amortisation, partly offset by increased EBITDA
Normalised free cash flow² £878m, up 6%, primarily due to increased EBITDA, lower cash tax payments and improved working capital, offset by higher cash capital expenditure and one-off items in the prior year
Capital expenditure up 24% to £3,752m, primarily due to investment in spectrum, FTTP and mobile network
Group adjusted² revenue now expected to be down around 2% for FY22 as a result of Covid-19 and supply chain issues; all other outlook metrics unchanged

Download - Trading update results for the nine months to 31 December 2021

_{¹ All commentary relates to the nine months to 31 December 2021 unless otherwise stated.}
_{²See Glossary on page 4.}
_{³Net debt was £17,802m at 31 March 2021.}

Results for the half year to 30 September 2021

Thu, 04 Nov 2021 06:59:53 +0000

BT Group plc (BT.L) today announced its results for the half year to 30 September 2021.

Philip Jansen, Chief Executive, commenting on the results, said

"These results demonstrate an acceleration of pace in the transformation of BT. We are creating a better BT for our customers, the country and our shareholders. We’re going further and faster on the UK’s next generation connectivity; we’re modernising BT and bringing down costs; and we’re reinstating the dividend today, as planned.

"After a record six months, Openreach has now rolled out full fibre broadband to almost 6m premises and continues to lower its build cost. Its three largest customers are signed up to the new pricing offer as we see rapid adoption of what will be the UK’s first nationwide full fibre network spanning 25m premises by 2026. Meanwhile, our 5G network now covers over 40% of the UK's population and we have over 5.2m 5G ready customers. Together, our networks provide our customers with an unrivalled level of connectivity.

"While we are serving our customers better than ever, BT is also changing rapidly internally. We have hit our £1bn cost savings target 18 months early, which allows us to bring forward our FY25 target for £2bn of savings to FY24. This is all part of creating a leaner BT with simplified processes and improved customer experiences.

"BT is on track and with results in-line with our expectations, we are today confirming our financial outlook for FY22 and FY23. Looking further out, as we pass the peak of our fibre build and move towards an all-fibre, all-IP network, we expect a reduction in capex of at least £1bn and lower operating costs of £500m. From these two factors alone, by the end of the decade we expect an expansion of at least £1.5bn in normalised free cash flow compared to FY22, and that's before any benefits from increased revenue and further transformation efficiencies. Our progressive dividend policy will be underpinned by these increased cash flows as we move to sustainable growth going forward."

Key strategic developments - accelerating the pace of transformation:

Adam Crozier joined the Board on 1 November, and will become Chairman with effect from 1 December
Ten communication providers including Sky and TalkTalk signed up to Equinox, Openreach's national long-term FTTP pricing offer
Launched Eagle-i, our flagship security platform that will predict and prevent cyber-attacks for enterprises
Delivered £1bn of gross annualised savings 18 months early at a cost of £571m
Brought forward FY25 target of £2bn gross annualised savings to FY24 with further savings in FY25, within the expected cost of £1.3bn; Group peak capex from FY23 now expected to be £4.8bn, down from £5bn previously
FTTP joint venture: with FTTP build costs coming down and take-up ahead of expectations, decided to retain 100% of the project for shareholders and to remain fully focused on driving build and take-up
Brought forward net zero targets to 2030 for operational emissions and 2040 for supply chain and customer emissions

Strong operational performance:

Record Openreach FTTP build in Q2 and footprint now at almost 6m; expected average build costs lowered to £250-£350 per premises passed¹
Openreach delivered strongest ever H1 for repairs on time at 87.1%, with highest proportion of customers back in service within SLA
Consumer and Enterprise have now connected over 1m homes and businesses to FTTP
Growth in fixed and broadband ARPC from Q1 into Q2 due to our convergence strategy and CPI+ price rise
5G ready customer base over 5.2m
Consumer churn remaining near record lows resulting from strong customer focus

Interim dividend of 2.31p per share declared; FY22 and FY23 financial outlook confirmed:

Revenue £10,305m, down 3%; driven by revenue decline in Enterprise and Global, flat in Consumer, partially offset by growth in Openreach; adjusted² revenue down 3%
Adjusted² EBITDA £3,748m, up 1%, with revenue decline more than offset by lower costs from our transformation programmes and tight cost management, and lower indirect commissions
Reported profit before tax £1,009m, down 5%, primarily due to higher finance expenses partly offset by increased EBITDA
Net cash inflow from operating activities £2,394m; normalised free cash flow² £360m, down 15%, primarily due to higher cash capital expenditure and adverse working capital movements, offset by lower tax payments
Capital expenditure £2,563m, up 30%, primarily due to investment in spectrum
Expect by the end of the decade at least £1.5bn expansion in normalised free cash flow compared to FY22, solely from lower capex and operating costs as we move towards an all-fibre, all-IP network, before any benefits of increased revenue and further transformation efficiencies, net of tax
Now expect around £5bn of carried forward tax losses from FY23 as a greater proportion of capex qualify for Government's cash tax super-deduction
Interim dividend of 2.31p per share declared

_{¹ Excludes new builds and net of subsidies.
² See Glossary on page 3.}

_{¹ Includes investment in spectrum of £496m.
² See Glossary on page 3 of the full release.}

Glossary of alternative performance measure
Adjusted	Before specific items. Adjusted results are consistent with the way that financial performance is measured by management and assist in providing an additional analysis of the reported trading results of the Group.
EBITDA	Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation.
Adjusted EBITDA	EBITDA before specific items, share of post tax profits/losses of associates and joint ventures and net non-interest related finance expense.
Free cash flow	Net cash inflow from operating activities after net capital expenditure.
Capital expenditure	Additions to property, plant and equipment and intangible assets in the period.
Group NPS	Group NPS tracks changes in our customers' perceptions of BT. This is a combined measure of 'promoters' minus 'detractors' across our business units. Group NPS measures Net Promoter Score in our retail business and Net Satisfaction in our wholesale business.
Normalised free cash flow	Free cash flow (net cash inflow from operating activities after net capital expenditure) after net interest paid and payment of lease liabilities, before pension deficit payments (including cash tax benefit), payments relating to spectrum, and specific items. For non-tax related items the adjustments are made on a pre-tax basis. It excludes cash flows that are determined at a corporate level independently of ongoing trading operations such as dividends, share buybacks, acquisitions and disposals, and repayment and raising of debt.
Net debt	Loans and other borrowings and lease liabilities (both current and non-current), less current asset investments and cash and cash equivalents, including items which have been classified as held for sale on the balance sheet. Currency denominated balances within net debt are translated into sterling at swapped rates where hedged. Fair value adjustments and accrued interest applied to reflect the effective interest method are removed.
Specific items	Items that in management’s judgement need to be disclosed separately by virtue of their size, nature or incidence. In the current period these relate to retrospective regulatory matters, restructuring charges, divestment-related items, Covid-19 related items, net interest expense on pensions and tax charge on specific items.

We assess the performance of the Group using a variety of alternative performance measures. Reconciliations from the most directly comparable IFRS measures are in Additional Information on pages 27 to 28.

Download - Results for the half year to 30 September 2021

Trading update results for the three months to 30 June 2021

Thu, 29 Jul 2021 07:02:10 +0100

BT Group plc (BT.L) today announced its trading update for the three months to 30 June 2021.

Key strategic developments:

Openreach announced an offer for communications providers giving long-term price certainty on FTTP to drive widespread adoption of ultrafast, ultra-reliable full fibre broadband

Announced long-term mobile network plans including: a 5G network that covers over 90% of the UK’s landmass by 2028; 4,500 square miles of new rural 4G coverage by 2025; and retiring legacy 3G services by 2023

Announced a strengthened strategic partnership with Microsoft to accelerate innovation across enterprise voice, cyber security and industry-focussed services

Reached agreement with the CWU¹ that recognises the need for change, ensures our colleagues continue to be treated fairly and with respect as we remain on track to modernise BT

Announced the launch of our new SoHo (Single/Small office, Home office) unit in Enterprise

Completed the sale of business units in Italy serving customers in the public administration and SME sectors

Invested in Safe Security, a leader in cyber risk quantification, reflecting our increased focus on security

Launched our Hope United campaign using the power of football to tackle online hate, as we continue to lead on the responsible use of technology

Strong operational performance with continued focus on our network growth:

Openreach FTTP network now covers 5m premises; increased our rural FTTP target to 6.2m premises as part of our programme to reach 25m premises by the end of 2026

Openreach announced it will stop selling legacy products to a total of 3m premises across 297 exchanges from April 2022

Launched Home Essentials, an industry-leading social tariff available to 4.6m low income households

Strong growth in FTTP connections and 5G-ready customer base in Consumer

Revamped our converged Halo for business broadband bundles to provide 900Mbps full fibre and Unbreakable Wi-Fi

Half of total Global orders won in the quarter were for products in our growth portfolio

Financials on track to deliver outlook and a path to growth:

Revenue £5,071m, down 3%; revenue has grown in Consumer and Openreach, and remained flat in the SME sector, more than offset by declines in the Corporate and Public Sector segment in Enterprise and in Global

Adjusted² EBITDA £1,866m, up 3%; all units have delivered EBITDA growth, with the exception of Global

Reported profit before tax £536m, down 4% despite higher adjusted² EBITDA, primarily due to the prior year gain on disposal of our domestic Spanish operations

Reported profit after tax £2m, down £446m, due to a one-off tax charge in the quarter to reflect the remeasurement of deferred tax balances following the enactment of the new UK corporation tax rate of 25% from April 2023

Normalised free cash flow² £(43)m, up 12%, due to improved EBITDA and lower cash tax payments, offset by higher cash capital expenditure

Capital expenditure up 63% to £1,507m, primarily due to investment in spectrum; capital expenditure excluding spectrum payments up 9% to £1,011m, primarily due to FTTP provisioning activities, mobile network spend and non-network infrastructure due to the Better Workplace programme

No change to FY22 or FY23 outlook

Philip Jansen, Chief Executive, commenting on the results, said

Our operational performance remained strong and our EBITDA grew during the first three months of the year, reflecting improved trading across most of our business and the positive benefits of our plans to modernise BT. Our results were overall in line with our expectations during the quarter, with good performance in the UK offsetting challenging conditions in Global's markets.

We’re powering ahead with our network build programmes: Openreach has now built full fibre broadband to more than 5m premises with growing customer demand; EE has set out plans for 5G on demand anywhere in the UK by 2028. We’ve also reached a partnership agreement with our largest trade union, the CWU¹ , allowing us to keep our modernisation plans on track.

We continue to invest in new strategic growth areas and have also today announced a strengthened strategic partnership with Microsoft that will see us accelerate co-innovation across all areas of our business, including enterprise voice and cyber security, supporting our growth strategy.

With trading conditions expected to see some improvement through the year, we have confirmed our outlook and remain confident that BT is on a path to growth.

Download - Trading update for the three months to 30 June 2021

_{¹ Communications Workers Union.
² See Glossary on page 3.
³ Net debt was £17,802m at 31 March 2021.}

Results for the full year to 31 March 2021

Thu, 13 May 2021 07:01:31 +0100

Philip Jansen, Chief Executive, commenting on the results, said

“BT comes out of this challenging year as a stronger business with an even greater sense of purpose. Our fantastic colleagues have shown the true colours of BT – delivering resilient connectivity, supporting families and businesses and helping to underpin the heroism of the NHS.

A number of uncertainties have now been removed. The Wholesale Fixed Telecoms Market Review, 5G spectrum auction and the Government's tax super-deduction give us the green light to build the UK’s next generation digital infrastructure even faster; today we are increasing and accelerating our FTTP target from 20m to 25m homes and businesses by December 2026 to deliver further value to our shareholders and support the Government’s full fibre ambitions. The conclusion of our triennial pension valuation today provides further clarity for shareholders.

After a number of years of tough work, and as we look to build back better from the pandemic, we’re now pivoting to consistent and predictable growth. We are building a better BT for our customers, for the country, for our shareholders and for those who work for this great company – now and in the future.”

Key strategic developments:

Ofcom's WFTMR¹, outcome of recent spectrum auction and Government’s tax super-deduction allows us to increase and accelerate our FTTP build from 20m to 25m premises by December 2026; BT to explore potential joint venture for additional 5m build - see separate press release
Agreed triennial pension deficit of £7.98bn and deficit recovery plan comprising: asset-backed funding over 13 years (£180m p.a.) secured against the EE business; and further payments over 10 years (£900m p.a. reducing to £600m p.a. from 1 July 2024) - see separate press release
Secured 80MHz of 5G spectrum for a total of £475m in Ofcom's auction allowing us to build on our position as the UK's number one 5G network
Significant UK cash tax benefit in 2021/22 and 2022/23, as a large proportion of our capital expenditure is expected to qualify for the proposed 130% tax super-deduction

Strong operational performance during the Covid-19 pandemic:

Strong network performance; BT's broadband networks seamlessly managed a doubling of daytime traffic due to more people being at home during the day; 42% increase in EE mobile data usage over the last 12 months
Group NPS² increased by 7.8 points compared to the prior year baseline, a 19th successive quarter of growth

Openreach achieved 2.0m in year FTTP build with record build levels in Q4; increased FTTP connections by 73% to 905k over the last 12 months
5G footprint doubled to 160 locations and 5G ready customer base now over 3.2m; EE named the Fastest Mobile Network by Uswitch in February 2021
Tracking ahead on our modernisation plans; delivered gross annualised savings of £764m within the first year of our three-year modernisation programme with an associated cost of £438m

Financials delivered in line with guidance primarily impacted by Covid-19:

Revenue £21,331m, down 7%, primarily due to the impact of Covid-19 on Consumer and our enterprise units, ongoing legacy product declines and divestments, partly offset by higher equipment revenue and Openreach bases in fibre and Ethernet; adjusted² revenue down 6% in line with expectation
Adjusted² EBITDA £7,415m, down 6% as expected, primarily due to the fall in revenue, special frontline bonus, increased service costs and continued investment in copper-to-fibre migrations and our FTTP base, partly offset by sports rights rebates and cost savings including our modernisation programme, tight cost control, and Covid-19 mitigation actions
Reported profit before tax £1,804m, down 23%, primarily due to reduced EBITDA
Net cash inflow from operating activities £5,963m; normalised free cash flow² £1,459m, down 27%, primarily due to reduced EBITDA, higher cash capital expenditure and adverse working capital, offset by a cash receipt from the monetisation of a non-strategic revenue stream generated from our building infrastructure and timing of tax payments
Capital expenditure £4,216m, up 6%, primarily due to increased network and equipment investment
As previously disclosed, no final dividend for 2020/21, but payments expected to resume at an annual rate of 7.7p per share in 2021/22
Outlook for 2021/22: adjusted² revenue to be broadly flat year on year; adjusted² EBITDA between £7.5bn-£7.7bn; capital expenditure c.£4.9bn; normalised free cash flow between £1.1bn-£1.3bn.

_{¹ Wholesale Fixed Telecoms Market Review.
² See Glossary below.}

Customer-facing unit results for the full year to 31 March 2021

Performance against 2020/21 outlook

_{¹ See Glossary below.
² On 1 April 2020, Supply Chain and Pelipod, which serve several parts of BT, were transferred from Enterprise to the central procurement team and as a result are now reported in Group ‘Other’ financial results. The prior year comparative for the Enterprise and Other CFU results has been restated to reflect this. Refer to the announcement on 29 June 2020 for further information.}

Glossary of alternative performance measure

Adjusted	Before specific items. Adjusted results are consistent with the way that financial performance is measured by management and assist in providing an additional analysis of the reporting trading results of the group.
EBITDA	Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation.
Adjusted EBITDA	EBITDA before specific items, share of post tax profits/losses of associates and joint ventures and net non-interest related finance expense.
Free cash flow	Net cash inflow from operating activities after net capital expenditure.
Capital expenditure	Additions to property, plant and equipment and intangible assets in the period.
Group NPS	Group NPS measures Net Promoter Score in our retail business and Net Satisfaction in our wholesale business.
Normalised free cash flow	Free cash flow (net cash inflow from operating activities after net capital expenditure) after net interest paid and payment of lease liabilities, before pension deficit payments (including cash tax benefit), payments relating to spectrum, and specific items. For non-tax related items the adjustments are made on a pre-tax basis. It excludes cash flows that are determined at a corporate level independently of ongoing trading operations such as dividends, share buybacks, acquisitions and disposals, and repayment and raising of debt.
Net debt	Loans and other borrowings and lease liabilities (both current and non-current), less current asset investments and cash and cash equivalents, including items which have been classified as held for sale on the balance sheet. Currency denominated balances within net debt are translated into sterling at swapped rates where hedged. Fair value adjustments and accrued interest applied to reflect the effective interest method are removed.
Specific items	Items that in management’s judgement need to be disclosed separately by virtue of their size, nature or incidence. In the current period these relate to retrospective regulatory charges, restructuring charges, the Dixons Carphone settlement, sale of spectrum, divestment-related items, property rationalisation costs, Covid-19-related items, net interest expense on pensions and tax credit on specific items.

Download - Results for the full year to 31 March 2021

Trading update results for the nine months to 31 December 2020

Thu, 04 Feb 2021 07:00:26 +0000

BT Group plc (BT.L) today announced its trading update for the nine months to 31 December 2020.

Key strategic developments:

Creation of a new technology unit - Digital - to lead our digital innovation agenda from 1 April 2021; Digital will lead the IT, process and business transformation of BT and develop and deliver new growth products, platforms and services

Sale agreed of selected business units in Italy
Continued progress on our wider modernisation programme including the creation of a standalone procurement company

Operational:

Openreach’s FTTP network now reaches 4.1m premises, built at an average run rate of 42k premises passed per week in the quarter; remains on track to achieve 4.5m by March 2021
Openreach's first copper stop-sell now live in Salisbury, extending to 2.2m premises by January 2022

FTTP commercial offers extended; all of Openreach's major communications provider customers now selling FTTP with strong increase in sales in Q3; Openreach achieved record 17k FTTP orders per week

5G in 125 locations and 5G ready customer base now over 2.1m; EE has taken top spot in Rootmetrics' latest national results for the 15th consecutive time with 5G in more places than any other network according to Rootmetrics

Consumer fixed ARPC down 5.8% year on year due to commitments to meet our fairness agenda, investment in our long term strategic base and declining voice usage; postpaid mobile ARPC down 6.9% year on year due to increased SIM-only mix, decline in roaming and out of bundle revenue

In Consumer, BT brand at its highest NPS¹ ever, as evidenced by strong BT sales and churn performance

Enterprise retail and wholesale order intakes up 8% to £3.2bn and 5% to £1.2bn respectively on a 12-month rolling basis

Global order intake up 1% to £4.1bn on a 12-month rolling basis

Financial:

Revenue £16,058m, down 7% due primarily to the impact of Covid-19 on Consumer and our enterprise units, ongoing legacy product declines and divestments of domestic businesses in Spain, Latin America and France
Adjusted¹ EBITDA £5,603m, down 5%, driven by the fall in revenue, partially offset by H1 sports rights rebates, savings from our modernisation programme and other cost initiatives including Covid-19 mitigating actions
Reported profit before tax £1,591m, down 17%, due to reduced EBITDA
Normalised free cash flow¹ £830m, down 17%, due to reduced EBITDA and higher cash capital expenditure, offset by a cash receipt from the monetisation of a non-strategic revenue stream generated from our building infrastructure and timing of tax payments
Capital expenditure up 5% to £3,030m, primarily driven by increased fixed and mobile network investment
Outlook for 2020/21: Unchanged except for lower end of normalised free cash flow¹ outlook range raised to £1.3bn; revised range £1.3bn-£1.5bn; the EBITDA outlook range remains at £7.3bn-£7.5bn

Philip Jansen, Chief Executive, commenting on the results, said

During the current Covid-19 pandemic, BT has continued to deliver for our customers and invest in our networks, our modernisation programme, and our products and services in recognition of the ever increasing need for improved and faster connectivity. We delivered results in line with our expectations for the third quarter and remain on track to deliver our 2020/21 outlook despite even greater Covid-19 restrictions than previously forecast. BT has shown again that it has the spirit and determination to step up and deliver for our customers, keeping them connected with a range of initiatives. I am particularly proud of the ongoing work and investments we are making to support school children, SMEs and the NHS during the pandemic.

We continue to make significant investments in our industry leading networks; with FTTP having now passed over 4m premises and 5G available in 125 towns and cities, we're firmly on track to deliver our March 2021 targets. Openreach FTTP orders accelerated even further to reach another record level of 17k per week. We have demonstrated continued improvement in our operational performance, including acceleration of FTTP and 5G take-up, and customer satisfaction metrics. This reflects our progress in creating valued, reliable, stand out customer experiences and propositions; the next evolution of our flagship convergence proposition, Halo 3+, will drive even further progress.

As the WFTMR² consultation process draws to a close we're focused on ensuring the new regulation will create an environment to allow for fair returns across our industry including the additional significant network investment we are poised to undertake. The latest proposals from Ofcom are positive for investment in many areas, but there are key points of clarity still needed to unlock the fibre investment the country needs; and we still need to see concrete progress from Government on the things they can do to support the fibre roll out.

With no material impact expected from the Brexit deal and our resilient results so far this year I remain confident in our EBITDA expectation of at least £7.9bn for 2022/23. Looking further ahead our new Digital unit will enable us to accelerate our digital and business transformation programmes and to deliver digital platforms that bring together best-in-class services for our customers, further securing a brighter and more sustainable future for the group.

Download - Trading update for the nine months to 31 December 2020

_{¹ See Glossary on page 5
² Wholesale Fixed Telecoms Market Review}

Results for the half year to 30 September 2020

Thu, 29 Oct 2020 07:00:41 +0000

BT Group plc (BT.L) today announced its results for the half year to 30 September 2020.

Key strategic developments:

All of Openreach's major CP¹ customers now selling FTTP with strong increase in sales in Q2
Consumer aligns pricing policies across all products and services to CPI plus 3.9% per annum to provide consistent, predictable pricing for new and regrading customers and to support network investment

Operational:

Strong operating performance despite the ongoing impact of Covid-19
FTTP rollout reached record levels in Q2 with run-rate of 40k premises per week; 3.5m premises passed to date
Openreach to stop selling copper products to c.1.8m FTTP-enabled premises by September 2021 latest
5G-ready customer base now over 1m and 5G now live in 112 towns and cities
Strong increase in Consumer FTTP customer base up 60% year on year; fixed and mobile convergence at 21.4%
Enterprise agrees landmark partnership with Belfast Harbour to deploy 5G Private Network
Modernisation programme delivers £352m gross annualised savings at a cost of £163m

Financial:

Revenue relatively resilient at £10,590m, down 8%, primarily due to the impact of Covid-19 including reduced BT Sport revenue and a reduction in business activity in our enterprise units, and declines in legacy products
Adjusted² EBITDA £3,721m, down 5%, driven by the fall in revenue, partly offset by sports rights rebates, savings from our modernisation programme and other cost initiatives including Covid-19 mitigating actions
Reported profit before tax £1,062m, down 20%, driven primarily by reduced EBITDA
Net cash inflow from operating activities £2,713m; normalised free cash flow² £422m, down 30%, primarily due to reduced EBITDA and offsetting movements in working capital and timing of tax payments
Capital expenditure £1,969m, up 5%, primarily driven by fixed and mobile network investment
Lower end of the adjusted² EBITDA outlook range for 2020/21 raised to £7.3bn; revised range £7.3bn - £7.5bn
Adjusted² EBITDA outlook of at least £7.9bn in 2022/23, underpins planned reinstated dividend from 2021/22 and value-creating investment plans

Philip Jansen, Chief Executive, commenting on the results, said

"BT delivered financial results in-line with expectations for the first half of the year, thanks to strong operational performance during exceptional circumstances. Customer demand during the pandemic has shown how critical our networks have become, and our significant network investments have helped us double the number of Openreach’s FTTP orders compared to this time last year and have seen our leading 5G network expand to 112 towns and cities across the UK.

"We continue to invest to make BT more competitive and I’m pleased to see the quality of our products and services improving. At the same time we are firmly on track with the delivery of our modernisation programme and have delivered £352m in cost savings in the first half of the year.

"This performance has given us confidence to raise the lower end of our EBITDA outlook range for this year and publish an EBITDA expectation of at least £7.9bn for 2022/23, with sustainable growth from this level forward. This growth will be driven by the continued recovery from Covid-19, enhanced by sales of our converged and growth products, and by significant savings from our modernisation and cost saving programme. In combination these factors will more than offset legacy product declines.

"The growth in EBITDA underpins the planned reinstatement of our dividend next year whilst ensuring that we can continue to drive value-creating investments in our networks and products."

_{¹ Communications provider
² See Glossary on page 2}

Customer-facing unit results for the half year to 30 September 2020

_{¹ See Glossary below
² On 1 April 2020, Supply Chain and Pelipod, which serve several parts of BT, were transferred from Enterprise to the central procurement team and as a result are now reported in Group ‘Other’ financial results. The prior year comparative for the Enterprise and Other CFU results has been restated to reflect this. Refer to the announcement on 29 June 2020 for further information}

Glossary of alternative performance measure

Adjusted	Before specific items. Adjusted results are consistent with the way that financial performance is measured by management and assist in providing an additional analysis of the reporting trading results of the group.
EBITDA	Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation.
Adjusted EBITDA	EBITDA before specific items, share of post tax profits/losses of associates and joint ventures and net non-interest related finance expense.
Free cash flow	Net cash inflow from operating activities after net capital expenditure.
Capital expenditure	Additions to property, plant and equipment and intangible assets in the period.
Normalised free cash flow	Free cash flow after net interest paid and payment of lease liabilities, before pension deficit payments (including the cash tax benefit of pension deficit payments) and specific items.
Net debt	Loans and other borrowings and lease liabilities (both current and non-current), less current asset investments and cash and cash equivalents, including items which have been classified as held for sale on the balance sheet. Currency denominated balances within net debt are translated into sterling at swapped rates where hedged. Fair value adjustments and accrued interest applied to reflect the effective interest method are removed.
Specific items	Items that in management’s judgement need to be disclosed separately by virtue of their size, nature or incidence. In the current period these relate predominantly to retrospective regulatory charges, restructuring charges linked with our modernisation programme and other cost initiatives, and divestment related items. Further information is provided in note 6 on page 22.

Download - Results for the half year to 30 September 2020

Trading update results for the three months to 30 June 2020

Fri, 31 Jul 2020 07:01:00 +0100

BT Group plc (BT.L) today announced its trading update for the three months to 30 June 2020.

Key strategic developments:

BT delivered a strong operating performance and remains committed to supporting our customers and colleagues. Financial results impacted by Covid-19
Openreach committed to build FTTP to 3.2m premises in rural areas by 2025/26, subject to enablers including extension of indexation across the whole country. Continued progress towards 20m FTTP target
Openreach to stop selling copper products to c.1.2m FTTP-enabled premises in 117 exchange areas from June 2021
Further work required to comply with additional restrictions on the use of Huawei equipment but no anticipated impact on coverage or rollout of 5G and full fibre; cost expected to be absorbed within previously reported estimate of £500m
Enterprise launched major new scheme to support small businesses in being better positioned for growth following Covid-19
16 successive quarters of improvement in Group NPS¹
Rob Shuter appointed CEO of Enterprise unit; Gerry McQuade to retire from BT

Operational:

Openreach continues FTTP rollout with 3m FTTP premises now passed; on track to achieve 4.5m by March 2021

Consumer fixed ARPC £36.4, down 4% year on year due to continued market competition and residential BT Sport revenue decline; postpaid mobile ARPC £19.6, down 5% due to decline in roaming and out of bundle revenues, and continued trend towards SIM-only; RGUs per address 2.41
Postpaid mobile and fixed churn both down to 1% in Q1 due to low market activity during lockdown

Financial:

Revenue £5,248m, down 7% primarily due to the impact of Covid-19, including reduced BT Sport revenue and a reduction in business activity in our enterprise units
Adjusted¹ EBITDA £1,813m, down 7%, driven by the fall in revenue and continued investment in customer experience, partly offset by Covid-19 mitigating actions and savings from our transformation programmes
Reported profit before tax £561m, down 13%, due to reduced EBITDA, higher interest expense, and higher depreciation and amortisation charges; partly offset by the gain on disposal of our Spanish operations
Negative Q1 normalised free cash flow¹ reflects Covid-19 pressures on EBITDA combined with the usual Q1 pressures on working capital due to the timing of public sector collections, capex creditors and payment of management bonus. Normalised free cash flow¹ declined by £372m to an outflow of £(49)m driven by Covid-19 impacts on EBITDA and extended customer payment terms, as well as some one-off cash flows which benefited the prior year including the upfront cash payment received from Cellnex
Capital expenditure broadly flat at £927m, with higher network investment offset by lower customer and non-network infrastructure spend
Outlook for 2020/21: adjusted¹ revenue down 5% - 6%; adjusted¹ EBITDA £7.2bn - £7.5bn; reported capital expenditure £4.0bn - £4.3bn; normalised free cash flow¹ £1.2bn - £1.5bn

Philip Jansen, Chief Executive, commenting on the results, said

"Despite Covid-19, BT delivered a strong operating performance in the first quarter and delivered a relatively resilient set of financial results. We continue to invest in the long-term future of the business. We continued to support our customers and colleagues through the crisis, including offering NHS workers on EE unlimited mobile data, and discounts for pubs and clubs on BT Sport until the end of the year. During the quarter Openreach resumed provisioning and repair activity in customer premises, we re-opened the majority of our retail stores, and we saw the restart of the Premier League on BT Sport. Enterprise has today launched the BT Small Business Support Scheme, which will boost cash flow, connectivity and confidence among this critical segment of the economy over the coming months.

"Throughout this crisis we remain focussed on delivering against our strategic goals to deliver long-term value for shareholders. We reached an important milestone with 3m FTTP premises now passed, welcomed Ofcom’s consultation on our rural FTTP build proposal, and have now deployed 5G to 100 towns and cities. Together with continued improvements in customer experience and our modernisation programme, we are positively positioned for the future.

"Although uncertainties remain, we are now able to provide an outlook for this financial year. Despite our strong operational performance in the first three months of the year, it is clear that Covid-19 will continue to impact our business as the full economic consequences unfold. Beyond this year and based on current expectations, we expect to return the business to sustainable adjusted EBITDA growth, driven in part by the recovery from Covid-19."

_{¹ See Glossary on page 5}

Download - Trading update results for the three months to 30 June 2020

Results for the full year to 31 March 2020

Thu, 07 May 2020 07:00:58 +0100

BT Group plc (BT.L) today announced its results for the full year to 31 March 2020.

Highlights:

2019/20 results overall in line with expectations

New FTTP target to reach 20m premises by mid- to late-2020s, on the assumption we obtain the required critical enablers

Phase 1 of our transformation programme complete; next phase of modernisation to deliver annualised gross benefits of £1bn by March 2023 and £2bn by March 2025, with £1.3bn one-off cost to achieve in total across the five years

Keeping the nation connected during the Covid-19 crisis

Final dividend suspended for 2019/20 and all dividends for 2020/21 to create capacity for value-enhancing investments and managing confidently through the Covid-19 crisis; expect to resume dividends in 2021/22 at an annual rate of 7.7 pence per share

Philip Jansen, Chief Executive, commenting on the results, said

"BT had a positive year delivering results in line with expectations and completing our £1.6bn phase 1 transformation programme, one year ahead of schedule.

"Covid-19 has changed everybody’s world and I am immensely proud of how BT has responded to the challenges the Covid-19 crisis has presented. Our strong and resilient networks, both fixed and mobile, have proved critical to the continuing functioning of the UK economy, providing unrivalled connectivity and services for the nation.

"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. Due to Covid-19, BT is not providing guidance for 2020/21, at this time.

"BT has the best network infrastructure in the UK. We have the leading 4G network and are rapidly expanding our leadership position in 5G, that today covers over 80 towns and cities. We have the largest and most extensive fixed network and are leading the UK on the next generation Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network where we now pass 2.6 million premises. Today we are announcing a rapid acceleration of our FTTP build with a target of 20 million premises passed by the mid- to late-2020s, including a significant build in rural areas. After passing 1.3 million premises last year, we are aiming at over 2 million in 2020/21, and envisage a maximum build rate of 3 million premises per year. Our FTTP investment should deliver pre-tax nominal returns of between 10% to 12% and is based on a regulatory framework consistent with Ofcom’s preferred policy direction and continued support for infrastructure investment and competition.

"The continued delivery of market leading customer experiences remains core to our success, with a focus on driving the take-up of converged product offerings such as Halo, our premium converged offering for homes and businesses. In the short period since launch, Halo now represents over 30% of our BT consumer broadband base.

"BT is delivering, but is also changing. BT needs to be leaner, simpler and more agile. Today we are announcing a radical modernisation and simplification programme that will use technology to create a better BT for the future. This 5-year initiative will re-engineer old and out of date processes, rationalise products, reduce re-work and switch off many legacy services. This next stage in the modernisation of BT will deliver gross annualised savings of £2 billion over the next 5 years.

"In order to deal with the potential consequences of Covid-19, allow us to invest in FTTP and 5G, and to fund the major 5-year modernisation programme, we have also taken the difficult decision to suspend the dividend until 2022 and re-base thereafter.

"These decisions, particularly on the dividend, network investment and transformation are key to underpinning BT’s investment case; driving network strength, competitive strength and financial strength, providing more clarity to the market, and driving long-term value for shareholders. I am confident that these decisions position us really positively for the future."

Jan du Plessis, Chairman, commenting on the dividend, said

"Recognising the importance of dividends to our shareholders, the Board’s decision in relation to the dividend has been exceptionally difficult. BT plays a key role in sustaining critical national infrastructure – as magnified by the Covid-19 crisis – and many stakeholders trust and rely on the connectivity we provide. BT also stands ready to make the biggest communications infrastructure investment in the UK in a generation – that includes building our full fibre network to 20m premises by the mid- to late-2020s. To maintain such trust, whilst creating capacity for value-enhancing investment and navigating the unprecedented uncertainties caused by Covid-19 without compromising our credit rating, the Board concluded that the prudent and proper decision was to suspend the 2019/20 final dividend and all dividends for 2020/21, and re-base future dividends to a more sustainable level. The Board believes that this decision is in the best long-term interests of shareholders.

"We expect to resume dividend payments in 2021/22, rebased to 7.7p per share. The Board expects to continue with a progressive dividend policy from this re-based level for future years."

Keeping the nation connected during the Covid-19 crisis:

Our priority is protecting our people, in particular our frontline keyworkers who have continued to work to keep the nation connected

Our networks are performing well, and comfortably within capacity, despite the change in demand patterns

We have supported the national response to the crisis, including providing connectivity to the NHS Nightingale hospitals and are working closely with Government on a wide range of initiatives

Operational:

FTTP rollout at c.32k premises passed per week; FTTP premises passed to date doubled in the year to 2.6m

Divested Tikit and progressing disposals of selected domestic operations in Latin America and France

5G now live in 80 cities and large towns; investing significantly to more than double current footprint by March 2021 subject to the right conditions

EE named best overall operator in RootMetrics' biannual awards

Consumer fixed ARPC £38.1, down 2% year on year; postpaid mobile ARPC £20.4, down 2% year on year due to impact of regulation and continued trend towards SIM-only; RGUs per address 2.38

Postpaid mobile churn improved to 1.1% quarter on quarter; fixed churn improved to 1.3% year on year due to improvements to customer experience and shift to fairer, predictable and competitive pricing strategy

Financial:

Reported revenue £22,905m down 2%¹ mainly reflecting the impact of regulation, declines in legacy products, strategic reductions in low margin business and divestments

Reported profit before tax £2,353m down year on year; includes charges of £95m as a result of Covid-19 mainly reflecting increased debtor provisions

Adjusted² EBITDA £7,907m, down 3%¹, due to lower revenue and investment in customer experience, partly offset by cost savings from transformation programmes

Net cash inflow from operating activities £6,271m, up 47%, due to lower pension contributions and one-off cash flows; normalised free cash flow² £2,011m, down 18%, primarily due to increased cash capital expenditure

Capital expenditure £3,960m, up £193m excluding BDUK funding deferral, driven by network and customer investment

Net debt² increased primarily due to implementation of IFRS 16, and net business cash outflows

Given the uncertainty created by Covid-19 we will not be providing a financial outlook statement for 2020/21

Customer-facing unit results for the full year to 31 March 2020

Performance against 2019/20 outlook

Trading update for the nine months to 31 December 2019

Thu, 30 Jan 2020 07:00:25 +0000

BT Group plc (BT.L) today announced its trading update for the nine months to 31 December 2019.

Key strategic developments - continued delivery in line with strategy:

Ofcom's consultation on the Wholesale Fixed Telecoms Market Review is an important step forward in incentivising investment in the UK's digital infrastructure and toward enabling BT to significantly increase its FTTP target
Exclusive rights to UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and UEFA Europa Conference League secured until 2024
On-shoring of BT brand sales and service calls completed; nearly 500 retail stores now BT/EE dual branded
Our Better Workplace programme confirmed further long-term locations in Birmingham and Bristol
Sale agreed of our domestic operations in Spain
Important clarification on use of certain vendors in 5G and full fibre networks - estimated impact of c.£500m over 5 years

Operational:

5G now live in over 50 locations; EE found to have broadest 5G network by RootMetrics
Openreach accelerates FTTP build at c.26k premises passed per week; 2.2m FTTP premises passed to date
Openreach awarded two of three lots to provide superfast speeds to Scotland; vast majority of build to be FTTP
Consumer fixed ARPC £38.2, down 4% year on year due to decline in voice revenue; postpaid mobile ARPC £20.3, down 5% due to impact of regulation and continued trend towards SIM-only; RGUs per address 2.38
Postpaid mobile churn remains low at 1.3% in Q3 despite impact of auto switching; fixed churn at 1.3% in Q3 down from 1.4% in prior year following customer experience improvements and new pricing strategy

Financial:

Reported revenue £17,246m and adjusted² revenue £17,192m, both down 2%¹ primarily due to ongoing headwinds from regulation, competition and legacy product declines
Reported profit before tax of £1,911m; adjusted² EBITDA £5,900m, down 3%¹, due to the fall in revenue, higher spectrum fees, investment in customer experience and higher operating costs in Openreach
Normalised free cash flow² of £1,000m, down 42% due to increased cash capital expenditure, deposit for UEFA club football rights, higher interest and tax payments and working capital, partially offset by one-off cash flows
Capital expenditure £2,877m. Up £251m excluding BDUK funding deferral, driven by fixed and mobile network investment
Overall financial outlook maintained; we expect normalised free cash flow², for timing reasons, to be in lower half of the £1.9bn - £2.1bn full year guidance range

Philip Jansen, Chief Executive, commenting on the results, said

“BT delivered results slightly below our expectations for the third quarter of the year, but we remain on track to meet our outlook for the full year.

“We continue to invest in the business. During the quarter we launched Halo, the UK’s ultimate converged plan, which will give homes and businesses the best connection and service. We’ve continued to use our national scale and local presence across the UK to provide customers with the best possible experience, for example by meeting our promise to answer all customer calls in the UK and Ireland and bringing BT sales and service back to the high street in nearly 500 BT/EE stores.

“Underpinning the ongoing development of market-leading propositions, we continue to invest in the best converged network. We welcomed the direction of Ofcom’s recent consultation, which is an important step forward towards a widely-shared ambition to invest in fibre across the whole of the UK. We’re also investing in 5G, making it available in over 50 locations, with the first customers enjoying a great experience.

"The security of our network is paramount for BT. We therefore welcome and are supportive of the clarity provided by Government around the use of certain vendors in networks across the UK and agree that the priority should be the security of the UK’s communications infrastructure. We are in the process of reviewing the guidance in detail to determine the full impact on our plans and at this time estimate an impact of around £500 million over the next 5 years.

“I’m really excited about the long-term prospects for this great company and I‘m confident our plans will enable us to be bolder, smarter, and faster to ensure that we remain successful and create a better BT for the future.”

_{¹ Changes on prior year are presented on an IAS 17 basis where meaningful except for adjusted EBITDA, which is presented on an IFRS 16 pro forma basis
² See Glossary on page 5
n/m = IFRS 16 to IAS 17 comparison not meaningful}

Download full trading update

Results for the half year to 30 September 2019

Thu, 31 Oct 2019 07:01:00 +0000

BT Group plc (BT.L) today announced its results for the half year to 30 September 2019.

Key strategic developments:

Launched a host of new products for consumer and business segments, including the new BT Halo converged product plans and BT Mobile 5G
Introduced a range of new service initiatives including bringing the BT brand to the high street in over 600 EE/BT dual-branded stores, and to answer 100% of customer calls in the UK & Ireland from January 2020
Continued to make progress on the BT modernisation agenda, including delivering over £1.1bn transformation benefits, announcing the first locations in our Better Workplace Programme, and disposal of BT Fleet Solutions
Outlined our Skills for Tomorrow programme to provide digital skills training for 10m UK children, families and businesses

Operational:

5G network live in over 20 cities and large towns; 5G smartphone plans now available on both EE and BT brands
Openreach announced the launch of new FTTP 1Gbps and 550Mbps products. FTTP rollout at c.23k premises passed per week; 4.2m ultrafast (FTTP and Gfast) premises passed to date; currently announced plans to build FTTP in 103 locations
Consumer fixed ARPC £38.5, broadly flat year on year; postpaid mobile ARPC £20.8, down 5.5% year on year due to impact of regulation and continued trend towards SIM-only; RGUs per address up to 2.38
Postpaid mobile churn remains low at 1.2% in Q2 despite impact of auto switching; fixed churn at 1.3% in Q2 down from 1.6% in prior year

Financial:

Reported revenue £11,467m, down 1%¹ mainly reflecting the impact of regulation, declines in legacy products, and strategically reducing low margin business
Reported profit before tax £1,333m, broadly flat year on year; adjusted² EBITDA £3,923m, down 3%¹ due to lower revenues, increased spectrum fees, content costs and investment to improve competitive positioning partly offset by cost savings from transformation programmes
Net cash inflow from operating activities of £2,173m; normalised free cash flow² of £604m, down 38% due to increased capital expenditure, higher interest and tax payments, partially offset by one-off cash flows
Capital expenditure £1,882m. Up £225m excluding BDUK grant funding deferral, driven by increased network investment
Net debt² increased primarily due to implementation of IFRS 16, £6.1bn, and net business cash outflows, £1.2bn
Interim dividend of 4.62p per share; 30% of last year’s full-year dividend of 15.4p per share
Overall financial outlook maintained

Philip Jansen, Chief Executive, commenting on the results, said

“BT delivered results in line with our expectations for the second quarter and first half of the year, and we remain on track to meet our outlook for the full year.

“We’ve invested to strengthen our competitive position. We’ve accelerated our 5G and FTTP rollouts, introduced an enhanced range of product and service initiatives for both consumer and business segments, and announced price and technology commitments to deliver fair, predictable and competitive pricing for customers.

“Openreach is significantly accelerating its pace of FTTP build and is now passing a home or business every 26 seconds. Openreach announced a further 29 locations in its build plan to reach 4m premises by March 2021, and we continue to make positive progress with Government and Ofcom on the enablers to stimulate further investment in full fibre.

“We continue to make progress on the BT modernisation agenda, delivering over £1.1bn in annualised cost savings, and announcing locations in our Better Workplace Programme.”

Customer-facing unit results for the half year to 30 September 2019

Glossary of alternative performance measures

Adjusted	Before specific items
EBITDA	Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation
Adjusted EBITDA	EBITDA before specific items, share of post tax profits/losses of associates and joint ventures and net non-interest related finance expense
Free cash flow	Net cash inflow from operating activities after net capital expenditure
Capital expenditure	Additions to property, plant and equipment and intangible assets in the period
Normalised free cash flow	Free cash flow after net interest paid and payment of lease liabilities, before pension deficit payments (including the cash tax benefit of pension deficit payments) and specific items
Net debt	Loans and other borrowings and lease liabilities (both current and non-current), less current asset investments and cash and cash equivalents. Currency denominated balances within net debt are translated into sterling at swapped rates where hedged. Fair value adjustments and accrued interest applied to reflect the effective interest method are removed
IFRS 16 pro forma	On 1 April 2019, BT adopted IFRS 16 Leases, which replaced IAS 17 Leases. To aid comparability, pro forma financial information for 2018/19 has been presented to reflect how the results would have looked like if the accounting standard had been adopted last year. See page 9 for more details.
Specific items	Items that in management’s judgement need to be disclosed separately by virtue of their size, nature or incidence. Further information is provided in note 6 on page 25

_{We assess the performance of the group using a variety of alternative performance measures. The rationale for using adjusted measures is explained in note 1 on page 32. Results on an adjusted basis are presented before specific items. Reconciliations from the most directly comparable IFRS measures are in Additional Information on pages 32 to 34.}

Results for the full year to 31 March 2019

Thu, 09 May 2019 06:00:00 +0100

BT Group plc (BT.L) today announced its results for the full year to 31 March 2019.

Key strategic developments:

FTTP build targets increased from 3m to 4m premises passed by March 2021; FTTP ambition increased from 10m to 15m by mid-2020s and remains subject to conditions being right
EE to launch 5G imminently and on track to go live in 16 cities in 2019 with a range of device partners
Continued quarterly improvement in customer experience metrics; Group NPS¹ up 6.5 points, Right First Time² up 5.4%
Initiatives to transform our business are on track; restructuring programme achieved annualised cost savings of £875m

Operational:

Openreach passed c.2m premises with Gfast and c.1.2m with FTTP; now passing c.20,000 premises with FTTP per week
BT Plus takeup remains encouraging with around 1 million subscribers since May 2018 launch
Consumer fixed ARPC down 0.3% in the quarter to £38.8 reflecting retail market competition; postpaid mobile ARPC down 0.9% in the quarter to £20.9 due to increased mix of SIM only; RGUs per address stable at 2.37
Mobile churn down to 1.1% reflecting improved retention and successful device launches; fixed churn flat at 1.4%

Financial:

Reported revenue of £23,428m and adjusted revenue of £23,459m both down 1%⁴ as growth in Consumer was offset by regulated price reductions in Openreach and declines in our enterprise businesses, in particular in fixed voice
Reported profit before tax of £2,666m, up 2%; adjusted³ EBITDA of £7,392m, down 2%⁴
Net cash inflow from operating activities of £4,256m, down 14% mainly due to pension deficit payments, increased capital expenditure and lower EBITDA; normalised free cash flow³ of £2,440m, down 18%
Capital expenditure £3,963m, up £441m, of which £213m relates to BDUK grant funding deferral including the change in take-up assumption announced in Q2, and the remainder primarily to increased investment in FTTP
Proposed final dividend of 10.78p pence per share, giving a full-year dividend of 15.4p; unchanged on last year
Outlook for 2019/20: adjusted³ revenue down c.2%, adjusted³ EBITDA £7.2bn - £7.3bn, capital expenditure⁵ £3.7bn - £3.9bn and normalised free cash flow³ of £1.9bn - £2.1bn

Philip Jansen, Chief Executive, commenting on the results, said

“BT delivered solid results for the year, in line with our guidance, with adjusted profit growth in Consumer and Global Services offset by declines in Enterprise and Openreach.

“Since joining the company three months ago, it has become clear to me just how fundamental BT’s role is in connecting our society. While we are really well positioned in a very challenging and competitive UK market, we have a lot of work to do to ensure we remain successful and deliver long term sustainable value to our shareholders. We need to invest to improve our customer propositions and competitiveness. We need to invest to stay ahead in our fixed, mobile and core networks, and we need to invest to overhaul our business to ensure that we are using the latest systems and technology to improve our efficiency and become more agile.

“Our aim is to deliver the best converged network and be the leader in fixed ultrafast and mobile 5G networks. We are increasingly confident in the environment for investment in the UK. We have already announced the first 16 UK cities for 5G investment. Today we are announcing an increased target to pass 4m premises with ultrafast FTTP technology by 2020/21, up from 3m, and an ambition to pass 15 million premises by the mid-2020s, up from 10 million, if the conditions are right, especially the regulatory and policy enablers.

“For 2018/19 the Board has decided to hold the full year dividend unchanged at 15.4p per share. The Board also expects to hold the dividend unchanged in respect of the current financial year given our outlook for earnings and cash flow.”

_{¹ Group NPS measures Net Promoter Score in our retail business and Net Satisfaction in our wholesale business

² Measured against Group-wide ‘Right First Time’ (RFT) index

³ See Glossary on page 2

⁴ Measured against IFRS 15 pro forma comparative period in the prior year

⁵ Excluding BDUK clawback}

Customer facing unit results for the full year to 31 March 2019

Performance against 2018/19 outlook

_{¹ See Glossary below

² Excluding BDUK clawback

n/m = not meaningful}

Glossary of alternative performance measures

Adjusted	Before specific items
EBITDA	Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation
Adjusted EBITDA	EBITDA before specific items, share of post tax profits/losses of associates and joint ventures and net non-interest related finance expense
Free cash flow	Net cash inflow from operating activities after capital expenditure
Capital expenditure	Additions to property, plant and equipment and intangible assets in the period
Normalised free cash flow	Free cash flow after net interest paid, before pension deficit payments (including the cash tax benefit of pension deficit payments) and specific items
Net debt	Loans and other borrowings (both current and non-current), less current asset investments and cash and cash equivalents. Currency denominated balances within net debt are translated to sterling at swapped rates where hedged. Fair value adjustments and accrued interest applied to reflect the effective interest method are removed.
Specific items	Items that in management’s judgement need to be disclosed separately by virtue of their size, nature or incidence. Further information is provided in note 6 on page 26
Underlying	Excludes specific items, foreign exchange movements and the effect of acquisitions and disposals. Further information is provided in note 1 on page 36

We assess the performance of the group using a variety of alternative performance measures. The rationale for using adjusted measures is explained in note 1 on page 36. Results on an adjusted basis are presented before specific items. Reconciliations from the most directly comparable IFRS measures are in Additional Information on pages 36 to 38.