Revenues and profits fall in BT H1
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Editor
| 04 November 2021
BT has released first half year results revealing declines in revenue and profits but also with pointers to its fibre-to-the premises strategy beginning to bear fruit, reaching record levels in the second quarter.
Openreach fibre 15Jan2020
For the half year ended 30 September 2021, the UK incumbent telco reported total revenues of £10.305 billion, down 3% on an annual basis driven by falls in its Enterprise and Global lines and flat performance in Consumer but partially offset by growth in its Openreach broadband provision business.

This resulted in adjusted EBITDA of £3.748 billion, inching up 1% compared with the end of the first six months on the previous financial year with revenue decline offset by lower costs from the company’s transformation programmes and tightercost management, and lower indirect commissions. Reported profit before tax fell 5% compared with the end of the same time in 2020 to £1.009 billion, due primarily to higher finance expenses partly offset by increased EBITDA.

Indicating what had been the standouts for the reporting period, BT noted that its ‘Fibre First’ fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) build programme rollout continued to accelerate, reaching “record levels” in the second quarter, building at an average run-rate of 47,300 premises passed per week and its customer base grew by 85,000 in Q2 to 945,000.

Openreach's FTTP network now reaches almost 6 million premises. FTTP connections have now nearly doubled year-on-year to 1.3 million and ten communication providers including Sky and TalkTalk have signed up to Openreach's Equinox long-term FTTP pricing offer. In addition, the EE 5G ready customer base now stands at over 5.2 million and now covers around 40% of the UK’s population.

Commenting on the half year results, BT chief executive Philip Jansen said: “These results demonstrate an acceleration of pace in the transformation of BT. We are creating a better BT for our customers, the country and our investors,” “We’re going further and faster on the UK’s next generation connectivity; we’re modernising BT and bringing down costs; and we’re reinstating the dividend today, as planned. BT is on track and with results in-line with our expectations, we are today confirming our financial outlook for FY22 and FY23. Looking further out, as we pass the peak of our fibre build and move towards an all-fibre, all-IP network, we expect a reduction in capex of at least £1 billion and lower operating costs of £500 million.”