Half-year Report

BT Group PLC

02 November 2023

 

Results for the half year to 30 September 2023

BT Group plc

2 November 2023

Philip Jansen, Chief Executive, commenting on the results, said "These results show that BT Group is delivering and on target: we're rapidly building and connecting customers to our next generation networks, we're simplifying our products and services, and we're now seeing predictable and consistent revenue and EBITDA growth. "We've strengthened our competitive position with the launch of both New EE and our renewed strategy in Business, and Openreach has now built full fibre broadband to more than a third of the UK's homes and businesses with a growing connection rate. Our transformation programme has now delivered £2.5bn in annualised savings,  well on track to meet our £3bn savings target by FY25. "Our delivery in the first half means we are confirming our financial outlook for FY24 with normalised free cash flow now expected towards the top end of the guidance range, and we are declaring an interim dividend of 2.31 pence per share. BT Group has a bright future and I'm pleased to be handing the baton to Allison Kirkby early in the new year. She knows the sector, she knows the company and she's the right person to lead BT Group from this position of operational strength."

Continued strong execution of our strategy

•   FTTP build rate accelerated to 66k per week delivering a record of 860k premises passed in the quarter, FTTP footprint is now expanded to 12m premises with a further 6m where initial build is underway

•   Strong customer demand in Openreach for FTTP with net adds of 364k in Q2, bringing take-up rate to 33%

•   Openreach broadband ARPU grew by 10% year-on-year due to price rises and increased volumes of FTTP; Openreach broadband line losses of 255k in H1, a 1% decline in the broadband base; whilst we continue to target a decline of around 400k in FY24, softer market conditions increase the risk that losses will be above this level

•   Consumer broadband ARPU for the year to date increased 4% year-on-year and Consumer postpaid mobile ARPU for the year to date increased 9% year-on-year; churn for the year to date remains stable for both broadband and postpaid mobile at 1.1% and 1.0% respectively

•   In October 'New EE' was launched  with a modern digital platform and a set of converged products and services

•   Retail FTTP base grew year-on-year by 48% to 2.2m of which Consumer 2.1m and Business 0.1m; 5G base 9.9m, up 42% year-on-year

•   Cost transformation on track with gross annualised cost savings of £2.5bn since April 2020 against our £3bn target, with a cost to achieve of £1.3bn against a target of £1.6bn

•   Continued focus on creating standout customer experiences with BT Group NPS of 22.7, up 1.8pts year-on-year

Adjusted¹ Revenue and EBITDA growth:

•   Reported revenue £10.4bn, in line with the prior year; adjusted¹ revenue £10.4bn, up 3% on a pro forma² basis due to increased fibre-enabled product sales, inflation-linked pricing and improved lower margin trading in Business partially offset  by legacy product declines

•   Adjusted¹ EBITDA £4.1bn, up 6%; and up 4% on a pro forma² basis with revenue flow through and strong cost control more than offsetting cost inflation and one-off items in the prior year; Business EBITDA decline due to increased input costs and legacy high-margin managed contract declines

•   Reported profit before tax £1.1bn, up 29% largely due to factors driving adjusted¹ EBITDA growth

•   Reported capital expenditure ('capex') £2.3bn, down 11% with lower fixed network spend driven by lower FTTP build unit costs; cash capex of £2.5bn also  down 11%

•   Net cash inflow from operating activities £2.3bn; normalised free cash flow¹ £0.5bn, up £0.4bn primarily due to £0.2bn increase in adjusted EBITDA¹ and £0.3bn decrease in cash capital expenditure partly offset by £(0.1)bn net working capital outflow; net working capital movements includes £359m from the sale of cash flows of contract assets relating to mobile handsets as well as £(220)m from lower utilisation of a supply chain financing programme

•   Net debt £19.7bn, (31 March 2023: £18.9bn), increasing mainly due to pension scheme contributions with net free cash flow for the first half of FY24 substantially offsetting the payment for the final  dividend of FY23

•   Gross IAS 19 deficit of £3.9bn, up from £3.1bn at 31 March 2023 mainly due to the increase in real interest rates and narrowing of credit spreads over H1, partly offset by deficit contributions

•   Interim dividend for FY24 of 2.31 pence per share (pps) in line with our policy of paying 30% of prior year's full year dividend

•   FY24 Outlook: Adjusted¹ revenue and EBITDA growth on a pro forma basis; capital expenditure excluding spectrum of around £5.0bn; normalised free cash flow towards the top end of £1.0bn-£1.2bn range.

¹ See Glossary on page 3.

² See 'Prior period comparatives' section on page 2 for background on pro forma comparatives.

Half year to 30 September	2023	2022	Change
Reported measures	£m	£m	%
Revenue	10,407	10,366	-
Profit before tax	1,076	831	29
Profit after tax	844	893	(5)
Basic earnings per share	8.6p	9.1p	(5)
Net cash inflow from operating activities	2,324	2,911	(20)
Interim dividend	2.31p	2.31p	-
Capital expenditure	2,321	2,613	(11)
Adjusted measures
Adjusted1 Revenue	10,414	10,368	-
Adjusted1 EBITDA	4,094	3,873	6
Pro forma2 Revenue	10,414	10,130	3
Pro forma2 EBITDA	4,094	3,944	4
Adjusted1 basic earnings per share	10.3p	10.0p	3
Normalised free cash flow1	456	64	613
Net debt1,3	19,689	19,042	£647m

Customer-facing unit updates

	Adjusted1 revenue			Adjusted1 EBITDA			Normalised free cash flow1
Half year to 30 September	2023	2022 Pro forma2 re-presented2	Change	2023	2022 Pro forma2 re-presented2	Change	2023	2022 Pro forma2 re-presented2	Change
	£m	£m	%	£m	£m	%	£m	£m	%
Consumer	4,903	4,754	3	1,347	1,296	4	798	499	60
Business	4,100	4,041	1	806	903	(11)	(65)	12	(642)
Openreach	3,053	2,836	8	1,936	1,735	12	152	59	158
Other	8	14	(43)	5	10	(50)	(429)	(506)	15
Intra-group items	(1,650)	(1,515)	(9)	-	-	-	-	-
Total	10,414	10,130	3	4,094	3,944	4	456	64	613

Second quarter to 30 September	2023	2022 Pro forma2 re-presented2	Change	2023	2022 Pro forma2 re-presented2	Change	2023	2022 Pro forma2 re-presented2	Change
	£m	£m	%	£m	£m	%	£m	£m	%
Consumer	2,480	2,406	3	674	664	2
Business	2,073	2,074	-	420	469	(10)
Openreach	1,527	1,419	8	971	872	11
Other	3	7	(57)	(4)	(6)	33
Intra-group items	(833)	(755)	(10)	-	-	-
Total	5,250	5,151	2	2,061	1,999	3	687	269	155

¹   See Glossary on page 3.
² See 'Prior period comparatives' section below for more information on pro forma and re-presented measures.

³ Net debt was £18,859m at 31 March 2023.

Prior period comparatives

Throughout this release, comparative financial information for the half year to 30 September 2022 ('FY23') has been re-presented to reflect the merger of our Global and Enterprise business units to form Business; and the change in the methodology used to allocate shared Network, Digital and support function costs across our units, which improves the relevance of our financial reporting by better allocating internal costs to the drivers behind those costs. These adjustments are made pursuant to IFRS accounting requirements, for more information see note 1 to the condensed consolidated financial statements on page 15 .

In addition, the group and operating review sections of this release present comparative financial information for the Consumer customer-facing unit and BT Group overall on an unaudited 'pro forma' basis. This reflects adjustments that estimate the impact as if trading in relation to BT Sport has been equity accounted in FY23, akin to the Sports JV being in place historically. Analysis on a pro forma basis enables comparison of results on a like-for-like basis.

The Additional Information on page 29 presents a bridge between financial information for the half year to 30 September 2022 as published on 3 November 2022, and the comparatives presented in this release. For further information see bt.com/about for separate publications covering the formation of Business and cost allocation changes, (published 27 June 2023), and the pro forma adjustments (published 18 October 2022).

Glossary

Adjusted	Adjusted measures (including adjusted revenue, adjusted operating costs, adjusted operating profit, and adjusted basic earnings per share) are before specific items. Adjusted results are consistent with the way that financial performance is measured by management and assist in providing an additional analysis of the reporting trading results of the group.
Adjusted EBITDA	Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, before specific items, share of post tax profits/losses of associates and joint ventures and net finance expense.
Free cash flow	Net cash inflow from operating activities after net capital expenditure.
Capital expenditure	Additions to property, plant and equipment and intangible assets in the period.
Normalised free cash flow	Free cash flow (net cash inflow from operating activities after net capital expenditure) after net interest paid, payment of lease liabilities, net cash flows from the sale of cash flows related to contract assets, monies received as prepayment for the sale of redundant copper, dividends received from non-current assets investments, associates and joint ventures, and net purchase or disposal of non-current asset investments, before pension deficit payments (including their cash tax benefit), payments relating to spectrum, and specific items. It excludes cash flows that are determined at a corporate level independently of ongoing trading operations such as dividends paid, share buybacks, acquisitions and disposals, repayment and raising of debt, cash flows relating to loans with joint ventures, and cash flows relating to the Building Digital UK demand deposit account which have already been accounted for within normalised free cash flow. For non-tax related items the adjustments are made on a pre-tax basis.
Net debt	Loans and other borrowings and lease liabilities (both current and non-current), less current asset investments and cash and cash equivalents, including items which have been classified as held for sale on the balance sheet. Amounts due to joint ventures,  loans and borrowings recognised in relation to monies received from the sale of cash flows of contract assets and as prepayment for the forward sale of redundant copper are excluded. Currency denominated balances within net debt are translated into sterling at swapped rates where hedged.  Fair value adjustments and accrued interest applied to reflect the effective interest method are removed.
Service revenue	Earned from services delivered using our fixed and mobile network connectivity, including but not limited to, broadband, calls, line rental, TV, residential sport subscriptions, mobile data connectivity, incoming & outgoing mobile calls and roaming by customers of overseas networks.
Re-presented	FY23 comparatives throughout this release have been re-presented to reflect: (i) the merger of our Global and Enterprise business units to form Business; and (ii) the change in our methodology used to allocate shared Network, Digital and support function costs across our units. Refer to the 'Prior period comparatives' section on page 2 and note 1 to the condensed consolidated financial statements on page 15  for more details, and to Additional Information on page 29 for a bridge between previously published FY23 financial information and re-presented numbers.
Pro forma	Unaudited pro forma results estimate the impact on the group as if trading in relation to BT Sport has been equity accounted in FY23, akin to the Sports JV being in place historically. Refer to the 'Prior period comparatives' section on page 2 for more information and to Additional Information on page 29 for a bridge between previously published financial information (re-presented as noted above) and pro forma numbers.
Specific items	Items that in management's judgement need to be disclosed separately by virtue of their size, nature or incidence. In the current period these relate to changes to our assessment of our provision for historic regulatory matters, restructuring charges, divestment-related items and net interest expense on pensions.

We assess the performance of the group using a variety of alternative performance measures. Reconciliations from the most directly comparable IFRS measures are in Additional Information on pages 29 to 31.

Click on, or paste the following link into your web browser, to view the associated PDF document.

http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/1140S_1-2023-11-1.pdf

 

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