British telecoms group BT Group reported a 56 per cent jump in first-quarter pre-tax profit this morning, but turnover was flat on the previous year.
BT shares slipped 3.7 per cent to 197 pence on the news. The stock has retreated from highs in the past few days after a 50 per cent surge over the past four months. BT is underperforming the DJ Stoxx pan-European telecoms index by 11 per cent in 2003.
First-quarter earnings per share before goodwill and amortisation rose 64 per cent to 4.1 pence. Net debt fell below £9 billion sterling, down by a third on one year ago, helping to slash the interest payments which had weighed on profits.
Underlying pre-tax profit rose to £502 million ($812 million) in the three months to the end of June, helped by the lower interest payments as well as cost cutting. But turnover was unchanged at £4.586 billion.
BT maintained residential market share of around 73 per cent, although total geographic call volumes fell 7 per cent from last year.
As for the broadband "growth engine", BT has hit its mid-2003 goal of one million high-speed Internet connections. It now has 1.13 million broadband users on its network.