Cable & Wireless buoyed by turnaround progress

Cable & Wireless more than doubled annual profits today after reporting better-than-expected progress in the turnaround of its UK operation.

The telecoms group posted a sharp rise in pre-tax profits for the year to March 31, up from £100 million last year to £249m (€368m).

The group said the jump in profits came after revenues increased by £118m (€174.5m) to £3.3bn (€5bn) , reflecting the first full year impact of revenues from customers gained as part of the acquisition of business telecoms arm Energis in November 2005.

C&W said this more than offset the effect of customers leaving the company, called the churn rate, as it restructured the business to focus on larger, more profitable customers.