European News
29, Jul 2010.
BT posts 6 percent rise in Q1 core earnings
Britain's biggest fixed-line telecoms provider said its group revenues were down 4 percent to 5 billion pounds, in line with forecasts, while core earnings were up 6 percent to 1.4 billion pounds, slightly ahead of expectations. It took 291 million pounds of operating costs out of the business, helping it to report a free cash flow figure of 415 million pounds, compared with an outflow of 122 million pounds a year ago. BT has been plagued by underperformance at its Global Services unit, which caused two profit warnings at the group, but it has started to turn the company around after cutting costs. Its total labour costs were down 8 percent on last year. Its pension funding deficit valuation, another cause for concern for investors, was put at 6.6 billion pounds at the end of March, compared with an earlier valuation of 9 billion pounds from the end of 2008.
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