Broadband subscribers boost BT

3rd Feb 2011 06:55

Strong growth in broadband subscribers and a pick-up by its global services operation helped telecoms titan BT lift profits by almost a third over the past three months.Pre-tax profits in the quarter to December jumped by 30% to £531m from £408m, even though sales fell slightly to £5.04bn from £5.2bn.BT added 188,000 new broadband subscribers in the three months to take its market share to 53%. Profits from its global services division rose by 15% to £141m on an underlying business, though sales here fell by 7% to £1.98bn. Network management arm Openreach also did well with profits up 13% to £550m on flat turnover of £2.24bn."BT Retail had a good quarter with growth in business revenues and our highest share of DSL broadband net additions for eight years. Openreach benefited from a stronger broadband market and growth in its copper line base. BT Global Services is now expected to be cash flow positive this year, a year earlier than targeted," chief executive Ian Livingston said.Overall, group operating profits rose by 16% to £733m with underlying earnings up 7% at £1.48bn. Net debt also fell sharply to £8.7bn, down £1.4bn with global services now generating cash strongly. "These results show that we are making progress on a number of fronts. There is always more to do but our performance underpins our outlook for this year and the period to 2012/13," Ian Livingston added.