BT increased pre-tax profit 36% in the third quarter – the firm’s fiscal 2Q – despite half of its businesses registering lower sales during the period.
The firm generated a pre-tax profit of £552 million (€640 million) despite a 10% drop in overall revenue on the back of lower sales at its Retail and Wholesale businesses, and a marginal 1% rise in revenue from its Global Services division.
Despite the mixed bag of sales, BT continued to benefit from lower operating costs during the quarter, reducing the figure £108 million to £3.4 billion.
Chief Ian Livingston says the figures reinforce the firm’s full year outlook, but notes it will continue investing in customer service and seek operational efficiencies to “offset the economic headwinds.”
In addition to speeding up its domestic fiber deployment plans, the telco aims to “double our business in key Latin American countries, in addition to our expansion in the Asia Pacific region,” Livingston states.
The operator added 88,000 fiber broadband subscribers during the quarter, taking its total user base to 300,000. Regular broadband subscribers grew 166,000, giving BT a combined user base of 6 million – equivalent to 63% of all UK broadband connections.