BT Group Q2 Profit Declines; But Affirms FY Outlook - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - BT Group plc (BT_A.L, BT) reported Thursday that its second-quarter profit before tax decreased 1 percent to 666 million pounds from last year's 671 million pounds. Earnings per share declined 7 percent to 5.3 pence from 5.7 pence last year.

Adjusted profit before tax was 789 million pounds, compared to 873 million pounds a year ago. Adjusted earnings per share were 6.4 pence, compared to 7.2 pence last year.

Adjusted EBITDA declined 4 percent year-over-year to 1.81 billion pounds.

Reported revenues for the quarter declined 1 percent to 5.95 billion pounds from 6.01 billion pounds last year.

Adjusted revenues for the quarter decreased 2 percent. Underlying revenue excluding transit adjusted for the acquisition of EE declined 1.5 percent.

Further, the company announced an interim dividend of 4.85 pence per share, flat with last year. However, the company noted that from next year the interim dividend per share will be fixed at 30 percent of the prior year's full year dividend.

Gavin Patterson, Chief Executive, said, "Our first half results are in line with our expectations as encouraging results in our consumer facing lines of business, notably EE, helped offset ongoing challenges in our enterprise divisions, in particular Global Services. Given our underlying business performance, we are maintaining our outlook for the year."