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BT CEO hailed 2015/16 as a ‘landmark’ year and said integration of EE was going well.
BT reported a 9% rise in adjusted pre-tax profits to £3.47 billion in its fiscal year to 31 March, helped by stronger demand for its broadband and TV services and the acquisition of EE in January.
Adjusted EBITDA increased by 5% to £6.58 billion, including £261 million from EE, while adjusted revenue was 6% higher at £18.9 billion. Excluding transit, underlying revenue was up by 2 per cent and represented BT’s best growth in more than seven years, the company said.
BT also announced that Openreach and EE would spend £6 billion between them over the next three years on the further rollout of fibre and 4G networks to cover 95% of the country by 2020.
Mobile operator EE has already announced plans to cover 95% of UK landmass with 4G by 2020; BT also plans to extend ultrafast broadband to up to 12 million homes and businesses in the same timeframe, with a minumum target of 10 million. It also said there would be an increased focus on fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP), with the aim of reaching 2 million premises with this technology.
BT Group CEO Gavin Patterson hailed the 2015/2016 fiscal period to end-March as a “landmark year” for BT.
“We’ve completed our acquisition of EE, the UK’s best 4G mobile network provider, we’ve passed more than 25m premises with fibre and we’ve also delivered a strong financial performance,” he said, also noting that “the integration of EE is going well and we now see the opportunity to deliver more synergies than we originally expected, and at a lower cost.”
Paolo Pescatore, director of multiplay and media at CCS Insight, commented that this was the first time that BT had reported financial results after buying EE and following Ofcom’s strategic review of the UK market.
“Though it is still very much early days, BT will be keen to paint a rosy picture in order to justify EE’s hefty price tag,” Pescatore said, noting that BT Consumer had been expected “to post good results as it has continuously stolen the show with a few stellar quarters of subscriptions and revenue growth driven by broadband and TV.”
Indeed, BT Consumer reported a 7% increase in revenue, which it said reflected 17% growth in broadband and TV revenue. Openreach revenue was up 2% with fibre broadband growth offsetting regulatory headwinds.
Looking ahead, the outlook is for further unspecified revenue growth in 2016/17 and 2017/18 and EBITDA of approx. £7.9 billion in 2016/17. BT also emphasised that it wants to be “the leading converged services provider in the UK”, noting that the combination of BTs fibre network and EE’s 4G network provided a strong basis to offer new products and services.
