BT Ireland revenues jump 29%

FIXED-LINE phone operator BT Ireland delivered its best-ever results yesterday, as full-year revenues surged 29% to €372 million and quarterly profits were in the black for the first time.

The increased revenues came on the back of a 35% hike in revenues from corporates as the company, which changed its name from Esat BT recently, beat off stiff competition to land high-profile contracts with AIB, Bank of Ireland, drinks group C&C, food giant Greencore and the Government. Business telecom services account for the bulk of revenues, but it also made strong progress in the residential market and signed up 35,000 broadband high-speed internet access customers. It has about 100,000 customers using its basic dial-up internet package.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, the key performance benchmark for the telecom industry, rose 13% to €43m in the year to March. It also had good news on operating profits by reaching breakeven over the last three months of the year. Capital spending nudged 2% higher to €33m to support its investment in its network and equipment but will be followed up by a further €100m spend going forward.

Chief executive Bill Murphy said the company had built a strong and sustainable business that was well-placed to grow in the future. “Our strong performance is underpinned by an unrelenting focus on winning and retaining customers and our successful drive in delivering competitive broadband packages across the country,” he said.

“We lead the way in delivering innovative, customer-driven packages to Irish consumers and we will continue to concentrate on this core area. We are also totally committed to the further investment in the rollout of broadband and our recent announcement of a further €100m investment is testament to this.”

Chief operating officer Mike Maloney, who will take over from Mr Murphy when he takes up a senior position with BT in Britain later this year, said the company had become “the provider of choice” in the corporate sector and he was very optimistic about BT’s future plans to capture more residential customers.

But he warned that foot-dragging on the rollout of broadband would damage the economy and called on the Government to do more to move Ireland away from the bottom of the European league for broadband take-up.

The company is also monitoring developments in the mobile market.