News
U.K. operator reports 11% revenue growth at its consumer division, driven by turnover from broadband and TV services.
BT on Monday unveiled a new structure that includes newly-acquired mobile operation EE as a consumer-facing unit under its own brand and a reworked business operation that subsumes EE’s enterprise activities and certain assets from BT Global Services.
The announcement came as the U.K. incumbent presented a solid set of results for the three months to the end of 2015, with its consumer unit turning in a particularly strong performance.
BT chief executive Gavin Patterson welcomed the completion of the EE deal and said BT is confident it will deliver the anticipated cost and revenue synergies associated with it.
"We will operate a multi brand strategy with U.K. customers being able to choose a mix of BT, EE or Plusnet services, depending on which suit them best, Patterson said.
"EE will become a separate consumer-focused line of business within the group," Patterson explained. "We’re also creating a new organisation to better serve our business and public sector customers in the UK, combining BT Business with EE’s business division and parts of BT Global Services’ U.K. operations," he said. "BT Global Services will focus on serving multinational companies and major customers outside the U.K."
The new Business and Public Sector unit will generate revenues of around £5 billion and will be led by Graham Sutherland, who is currently chief executive of BT Business.
As previously announced, EE chief executive Olaf Swantee has left his post. Chief commercial officer Marc Allera steps up to the CEO role.
Following the restructure, BT will be made up of six operating units: BT Consumer, EE, Business and Public Sector, Global Services, Wholesale, and Openreach.
All six will be supported by its core networks business – Technology, Service and Operations – which welcomed a new CEO on Monday in Howard Watson; he replaces Clive Selley, who has now moved to head up Openreach.
BT’s third-quarter results showed 3% revenue growth year-on-year to £4.59 billion (€6 billion), although Patterson noted that underlying growth excluding transit came in at 4.7%, the telco’s best performance for more than seven years.
EBITDA was also up by 3% to £1.61 billion.
"BT Consumer had a standout quarter, increasing its overall line base for the first time in well over a decade and capturing 71% of new broadband customers," Patterson said. "Good customer growth in broadband, TV and mobile helped to grow ARPU by 7%."
BT’s retail broadband net adds came in 130,000, taking its total to just under 8 million. The telco added 250,000 fibre customers, taking its customer base to 3.7 million. Consumer ARPU Came in at £439.
BT Consumer generated revenues of £1.21 billion, up 11% on the year-ago quarter, driven by 23% growth in broadband and TV revenue, and a 5% increase in calls and lines revenue.
The only other unit to report revenue growth was Openreach, which saw turnover increase by 3% to £1.29 billion. The telco’s other business units all saw revenue slide by 1%.
