BT pre-tax profits up 24% as company announces restructure

Chief executive Gavin Patterson said BT is on track towards its goal of ‘sustainable profit growth’.

BT has reported a 24% increase in profit before tax for the third quarter of 2015, totalling £862 million as revenue witnesses its best result for more than seven years. It has also announced six new lines of business following its acquisition of EE.

A 4.7% increase over the quarter saw group revenue reach just short of £4.6 billion, which chief executive Gavin Patterson said put BT on track towards its goal of ‘sustainable profitable revenue growth’.

BT Consumer also had a ‘standout’ quarter, with overall line base growing for the first time in more than a decade and capturing 71% of new broadband customers.

The company said that it is seeing good demand from its broadband customers for BT Mobile and its new BT Sports Europe channels, with mobile customers now at over 300,000 and TV customers at 1.4 million.

The six new divisions which have been created following the completed acquisition of EE include two which will serve consumers, two which will focus on businesses and the public sector, and two which will provide wholesale services to other industry players.

“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,” Patterson said.

“We will operate a multi brand strategy with UK customers being able to choose a mix of BT, EE or Plusnet services, depending on which suit them best.”

The restructure will take effect from April.