BT has reported full year revenues (to March 31st) of £20.4 billion (€24.2bn), down 2 per cent, mainly attributed to continued challenging trading conditions in Global and non-UK Portfolio channels and weaker handset trading in Consumer, offsetting the benefit of FTTP growth in Openreach and price increases.

Adjusted UK service revenue was at £15.6 billion, down 1 per cent, largely due to legacy voice declines. Adjusted EBITDA £8.2 billion, up 1 per cent, driven by strong cost transformation. Reported profit before tax were at £1.3 billion, up 12 per cent, primarily due to goodwill impairment in the prior year, offset by higher specific costs and net finance expense.

BT saw record demand for Openreach FTTP with quarterly net adds above 500k for the first time, and total premises connected over 6.5 milion, increasing the take up rate to 36 per cent. Openreach broadband ARPU in the full year grew by 6 per cent to £16, driven by higher FTTP take-up, speed mix and CPI. More on Openreach’s increased investement can be read here.

Full year highlights included:

• Record FTTP build of 4.3 milion premises passed in the year; FTTP footprint reached more than 18 milion premises, of which 4.9 milion in rural locations
• Openreach broadband lines fell 243k in Q4, driven by losses to competitors and a weaker broadband market; expect the H2 run rate to continue through FY26
• New FTTP build target of up to 5 million announced for FY26, to accelerate FTTP benefits including take-up and underpinning the December 2026 target of 25 million
• UK’s best mobile network for the eleventh consecutive year as awarded by RootMetrics; tenth year of best network with umlaut connect; best 5G availability with speedtest; 5G standalone rolled out across 50 major UK towns and cities, covering over 40 per cent of the population
• Retail FTTP base grew by 33 per cent year-on-year to 3.4 million, of which Consumer was 3.2 million and Business was 0.2 million; 5G base reached 13.2 million, up 15 per cent year-on-year
• Consumer customer bases relatively stable in the year with a return to growth in the broadband base in Q4; Consumer broadband ARPU up 2.4 per cent year-on-year to £42.2; Consumer postpaid mobile ARPU £19.4 in line year-on-year; Consumer fixed and mobile convergence grew to 24.6 per cent from 22.9 per cent last year
• Business continued to refocus on the UK with disposals of operations in Ireland and, after the period end, Italy; the Emergency Services Network contract was secured for another seven years
• Transformation delivering ahead of plan with £913 million of gross annualised cost savings during FY25 at a cost to achieve in line with the company plan of £448 million; energy usage in networks was down 4 per cent and total labour resource was down 3 per cent to 116k; we achieved a 10 per cent reduction in Openreach repair volumes
• BT Group NPS improved to 29.5, up 4.7pts year-on-year, demonstrating further improving customer experience across all three customer facing units

Allison Kirkby, BT CEO, commented: “BT Group delivered strong progress against its strategic priorities in FY25, as we stepped up the pace of build of the UK’s leading next generation networks. We set new record build and connect highs: our full fibre network now reaches more than 18 million homes and businesses, with more than 6.5 million already connected, and we were awarded the country’s best mobile network for the 11th year in a row recognising EE’s clear leadership in 5G. We also accelerated the pace of simplification and transformation, agreeing asset sales, improving customer satisfaction across all of our brands and business segments, and delivering over £900 million of annualised cost savings.”

“Although revenue declined year-on-year driven mainly by lower international sales and handsets, strong cost control and a step-up in focus and transformation resulted in growth in both EBITDA and normalised free cash flow, allowing us to increase our dividend for FY25 by 2 per cent to 8.16p per share.”

“The momentum in, and impact of, our full fibre programme is such that we are now raising our build target by 20 per cent to up to 5 million UK premises in FY26, keeping us comfortably on track to reach 25 million by the end of 2026, while maintaining our cash flow guidance. We are now only one year away from our inflection to £2 billion of normalised free cash flow, our target for FY27, and remain on track to deliver £3 billion by the end of the decade. With the leadership team now in place to take our strategy forward, I am confident that as we build and connect at pace, our transformation will accelerate and deliver a better BT for all of us – our customers, our colleagues,  the country and our owners,” she concluded.

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Categories: Articles, Business, Results, Telco

Tags: Allison Kirkby, bt, telco