BT Ireland pretax profits up 42% to €44.1m last year

Pre-tax profits at the Irish arm of BT Ireland rose 42 per cent to €44.1 million from €31 million a year earlier, new accounts filed at the Companies Registration Office show.

Revenue for BT Communications Ireland Limited, which represents the group's business in the Republic, increased by 2 per cent to €444.1 million from €434.2 million for the 12 months to the end of March 2015.

Operating profit jumped 47 per cent from €28.6 million to €42.2 million as a result of a number of once-off costs in the prior year which impacted on 2015’s results.

The company said revenue in its wholesale division rose year-on-year driven by a number of new and renewed contract deals and the launch of Sky’s fibre broadband services in Ireland, which is delivered via BT. Revenue to other licensed operators also increased on the back of strong growth in a number of contracts, it added.

BT, which operates on an all-island basis, said core revenue in its business division in the Republic was up over the year under review while ICT-related turnover declined slightly.

“Growing demand for high-speed wired and wireless networks, global connectivity, unified communications, cloud and data centre services resulted in a significant number of new business deals,” it said.

The average number of people employed by the group fell from 696 to 629 over the year with staff-related costs declining from €51.9 million to €50.2 million.

Commenting on the figures, Shay Walsh, managing director of BT Ireland said, "despite on-going market challenges, we delivered top and bottom line growth largely as a result of securing significant business and wholesale contracts," he said.

“Variation in profit is attributable to rigorously managing our inventory costs and once off depreciation charges in the previous financial year,” Mr Walsh added.