At a Group level, BT reduced costs whilst growing EBITDA (up 1%). Profit before tax was up 13 per cent. The interim dividend has increased by 15% to 3.9p and the future outlook remains unchanged.
Key figures include:
Revenue - £4,383m in Q2 – down 2% vs £4,491m last year (but up 0.2% on an underlying basis, our key revenue measure).
EBITDA - £1,450m in Q2 – up 1% vs £1,434m last year despite our ongoing investments in fibre, sport, regulatory headwinds etc.
Profit before Tax - £690m in Q2 – up 13% vs £609m last year.
Gavin Patterson, Chief Executive, commenting on the results, said “This was a solid quarter, with results slightly ahead of market expectations as we reduced costs and grew EBITDA. Profit before tax was up 13 per cent.
“Our Consumer business continues to perform well thanks to the impact of BT Sport where Premier League audiences are up around 45 per cent on average. Fibre is also driving growth with one in three of our retail broadband customers enjoying super-fast speeds.
“Our fibre footprint has increased to more than 21 million premises and will continue to grow. We continue to see strong demand across the market for the faster speeds that fibre offers.
“Further improving customer service remains a priority and Openreach is recruiting an additional 500 engineers to help us better serve our customers. We have also launched a range of new cloud-based products and services aimed at the business market.
“We are delivering on our strategy and our outlook remains unchanged. Our confidence enables us to raise our interim dividend by 15 per cent to 3.9p.”