BT's third quarter profit and revenue rise as company unveils new structure

Telecom giant BT Group delivered a strong performance in the final quarter of 2015, as revenue and profit both rose, while the company announced a new corporate structure that will be implemented by April this year.

In the three months to 31 December, the FTSE 100 group registered a 3% year-on-year increase in revenue to £4.59bn ($6.5bn), while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) climbed 3% to £1.61bn.

The group, which increased its overall line base for the first time in a decade and now accounts for 71% of new broadband customers in the UK, posted a 14% year-on-year increase in adjusted pre-tax profit to £928m.

Underlying revenue excluding transit rose 4.7% in the period, the company's best performance in seven years.

"Good customer growth in broadband, TV and mobile helped to grow average revenue per users by 7%," said group chief executive Gavin Patterson.

"Customers like what we're offering, whether that's superfast broadband, Champions League football or mobile data bundles.

"BT Global Services also did well with good revenue growth in continental Europe and Asia."

In the nine months to end of December, revenue was flat at £13.2bn, while adjusted profit before tax grew 9% year-on-year to £2.33bn and underlying revenue excluding transit rose 2.3% compared to the corresponding period in 2014.

New structure

Meanwhile, following its takeover of mobile operator EE, BT unveiled a new organisational structure, which will be implemented from April and will see the company operate six lines of business.

EE will focus largely on the consumer market retaining its brand, its network and its hundreds of high street stores and will provide mobile services, broadband and TV, while BT Consumer will continue to provide superfast broadband,landline phone, TV and mobile services.

The new Business and Public Sector, formed by the merger of the existing BT Business along with EE's business division, will serve businesses as well as the public sector in the UK and Ireland, while the remaining three divisions will provide wholesale services and network access for major public and private sector groups in Britain and Ireland and across the world.

BT completed the £12.5bn acquisition of EE in January 2016 after receiving approval from the Competition Market Authority and Patterson believes the deal presented the company with a timely chance to reorganise its brand,

"The acquisition provides us with a chance to refresh our structure and we have done that by creating a major new division that will focus on businesses and the public sector in the UK and Ireland," he said.

"We want to support those sectors by offering customers the very best services whether that be dedicated private lines, network products such as fibre broadband, mobile solutions, IT services or cyber expertise to keep them safe. "