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BT Makes Big Loss

November 08, 2001 |

Key features

Total BT

  • Concert joint venture unwind announced. Write down of £1.37 billion in investment values, including £1.2 billion attributable to Concert and AT&T Canada
  • Net debt was £16.5 billion at end of September 2001, a reduction of £1.0 billion in the quarter following the £10.4 billion reduction in the first quarter
  • Shareholders approved the creation of two new listed companies through the demerger of BT's mobile business

    BT Group

  • EBITDA before exceptional items maintained at £1,392 million in the quarter
  • Turnover increased by 7.0 per cent to £4,557 million
  • Capital expenditure on property, plant and equipment reduced by 25 per cent to £660 million
  • EBITDA less capital expenditure increased by £136 million to £732 million before exceptional items Launch of BT Answer 1571 with over 2 million customers signed up by September 30, 2001
  • ADSL roll out extends to 1,000 exchanges at September 30, 2001 covering 60 per cent of UK households

    mmO2

  • Turnover grew 13.3 per cent on a pro forma basis to £1,062 million for the quarter Improvement in underlying EBITDA accelerated
  • Total active customer base was 16.78 million at September 30, 2001
  • Data as a percentage of service revenues was 10.7 per cent for the month of September and 9.9 per cent for the six months ended September 30, 2001
  • BT Cellnet service revenues grew 11.0 per cent to £614 million for the quarter, with a continuing reduction in post-pay churn
  • Viag Interkom's turnover increased 32 per cent on a pro forma basis to £221 million for the quarter, with EBITDA losses more than halved
  • Telfort's customer base grew to 1.3 million at September 30, 2001 with 376,000 added from the Postbank agreement
  • Digifone's customer base grew by 11 per cent to 1.1 million with the EBITDA margin in the quarter at 32 per cent
  • Genie WAP page impressions grew by 50 per cent over the quarter to an average of 150 million per month

    Demerger and transformation update

    At the meetings held on October 23, 2001, BT shareholders voted in favour of the scheme of arrangement and demerger of mmO2 to create two new listed companies and the BT Group reduction of capital. The scheme of arrangement and reduction of capital are to be considered by the High Court in the coming days and, if approved, the demerger is expected to become effective on November 19 and the reduction of capital on November 21. Dealings in BT Group and mmO2 shares will commence at 8.00 am on November 19 when the two companies will be entirely separate. BT shareholders just before the demerger will receive one BT Group plc share and one mmO2 share for each existing BT share held. It is expected that share certificates in the two new companies will be despatched to shareholders by November 30. The old BT share certificates will cease to have any value at the date of the demerger.

    The demerger is the latest in the series of transactions undertaken in the last six months designed to transform the group and reduce its debt. During this period, we have successfully raised £5.9 billion through the rights issue which closed in June, sold our Japanese investments for £3.7 billion, sold the Yell directories business for approximately £2 billion and completed the sale of other investments for a total of £1.5 billion. We have announced the unwinding of the Concert joint venture and the exit from AT&T Canada.

    Additionally, we have announced that we have decided that it is not appropriate at this time to pursue the legal separation of the BT Group's retail and wholesale businesses.

    http://www.groupbt.com/investorcentre/index.htm



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