New BT finance chief promises to swing hatchet faster

Tony Chanmugam is BT's brand new finance director. Since taking the job on Monday, he has promised to cut costs faster.

BT has already said it  plans to axe 10,000 jobs over the next year as part of its efforts to save £1.25 billion in operating costs.

In October BT shocked investors with a profits warning at its Global Services unit, sending shares to their lowest level since flotation in 1984.

Global Services was supposed to be the engine that transformed BT from an old-fashioned telco into a provider of ITC services for multinationals globally. As one wise old pundit commented this week, "BT's plans were always a joke - how could they ever think they could achieve a better margin than IBM‾"