BT Group Plc (BT_A.L,BT), a British telecommunications holding company, on Thursday reported a decline in pre-tax income for the fiscal ended on March 31, 2023, amidst a fall in revenue, as the growth in Openreach was more than offset by decline in the other units.
For the 12-month period, the London-headquartered telecom provider posted a pre-tax income of 1.729 billion pounds, lesser than 1.963 billion pounds, posted for the previous fiscal. Excluding items, pre-tax profit was at 2.290 billion pounds as against last year’s 2.351 billion pounds.
The earnings were also impacted by an increased depreciation from network build and specific items. Operating costs increased to 18.062 billion pounds from last year’s 17.965 billion pounds.
Post-tax profit stood at 1.905 billion pounds or 18.9 pence per share, compared with 1.274 billion pounds or 12.5 pence per share a year ago.
Adjusted post-tax earnings moved up to 2.158 billion pounds or 21.4 pence per share from previous year’s 2.002 billion pounds or 19.7 pence per share.
Operating income was at 2.619 billion pounds, versus 2.885 billion pounds of 2022.
Adjusted EBITDA climbed to 7.928 billion pounds from 7.577 billion pounds a year ago.
The Group generated revenue of 20.681 billion pounds, lesser than 20.850 billion pounds of 2022.
For the fiscal 2023, the company will pay a final dividend of 5.39 pence per share, bringing the full year total dividend to 7.70 pence per share, unchanged from last year’s total dividend of 7.70 pence per share. The final dividend will be paid on September 13.
Looking ahead, for the 12-month period to March 31, 2024, the company said: “We expect to be a significant beneficiary of the UK Government’s full expensing scheme from FY24-FY26 and expect to pay no UK cash tax for the next three years. With demand for FTTP well ahead of our expectations, we will reinvest this benefit into further accelerating our FTTP connections and absorbing inflation whilst remaining committed to our target of building to 25m premises by the end of 2026..”
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