BT shares rocked by revenues blow

The fallout from recent TV phone-in scandals impacted on BT today after the telecoms giant delivered revenue figures short of City estimates.

Third quarter sales at the former monopoly came in at £5.15bn (€6.89bn), nearly £100m (€134m) less than the £5.25bn (€7.03bn) expected by the market.

The figure reflected an 11% drop in turnover at its wholesale division, which supplies network space to communication firms such as Carphone Warehouse. The unit suffered from reductions in broadband pricing and lower volumes of calls routed through BT.

In particular there was a £10m (€13.4m) drop in quiz show call revenues following the suspension of various phone-ins by broadcasters after viewers were found to have been unfairly charged.

BT’s shares fell nearly 9% as the group also unveiled a 30% fall in pre-tax profits and lower than expected broadband take-up during the three months to December 31. The stock is at its lowest level for nearly 18 months.

The group said it added 177,000 broadband customers to its retail business during the three month period, down on City expectations of 220,000.

Chief executive Ben Verwaayen said it had been a “solid” performance, but the group’s overall picture was branded “disappointing” by analysts.