|
BT's 2Q earnings please
|
 |
November 11, 1999: 5:13 a.m. ET
British Telecom profits rise 9%; stock surges to all-time high
|
LONDON (CNNfn) - British Telecom unveiled a 9 percent rise in its second-quarter operating earnings Thursday. The results were better than expected although the company warned that competition is set to increase.
A comparison to last year was distorted by a 1.1 billion pound ($1.8 billion) gain BT made in the second quarter of 1998 when it sold its shares in MCI. However, stripping that gain out, earnings per share rose 3.4 percent to 9.1 pence. Underlying operating profit in the quarter rose a more respectable 9 percent to 1.69 billion pounds, up from 1.54 billion pounds.
The company's revenue for the quarter ended in September surged 21 percent to 5.33 billion pounds, as efforts to boost the number of cellular customers bore fruit. Expensive investment in attracting cellular subscribers means the impact on the bottom line will not be clearly visible for some time. BT signed up an additional 924,000 cellular customers in the second quarter, and now has 6 million U.K. mobile subscribers.
For the first six months of its fiscal year, BT's revenue rose 19 percent to 10.32 billion pounds, while operating earnings gained 7 percent to 3.28 billion pounds and earnings per share, excluding one-time items, rose 9 percent to 17.8 pence. BT raised the half-year dividend just over 7 percent to 8.7 pence.
Speculation was growing Thursday that BT may raise its 45 percent stake in its mobile phone joint venture with Germany's Viag.
The results were at the top end of analysts' expectations, and BT (BT-A) stock jumped almost 6 percent to 1,213 pence in early London trade, at one stage setting a new all-time high of 1,220 pence.
|
|
|
|
|
|
British Telecom
|
Note: Pages will open in a new browser window
External sites are not endorsed by CNNmoney
|
|
|
|
 |
|
