Revenues at BT Ireland up 4.3%

Revenues at BT Ireland increased 4.3 per cent in the year to the end of March to £771.4 million sterling.

In a statement this morning the telecoms operator said revenues from "new wave" technologies, such as networked IT services, broadband and mobility, rose by 13 per cent over the year and accounted for 30 per cent of total revenue.

BT Ireland, which operates on both sides of the Border, now has 153,000 subscribers to its broadband services in the North, up 23 per cent, and 80,000 in the Republic, an increase of 24 per cent compared with the same period the previous year.

The company services 330,000 residential and business customers in Northern Ireland through its wholesale business.

Chris Clark, chief executive of BT Ireland said last year had been "very strong" in revenue growth terms and EBITDA, which grew 21 per cent.

He said the company would continue to invest heavily in product and the last year had seen the introduction of new services such as up to 8MB broadband.

BT Ireland employs more than 3,000 staff.

BT Group chief executive Ben Verwaayen signed off his last set of results on today as fourth quarter earnings met targets, revenues beat expectations and Britain's biggest fixed-line provider forecast more growth ahead.

Mr Verwaayen, who will be replaced by BT retail boss Ian Livingston at the start of June, described the results as a "cracking set of numbers" and analysts agreed that they were mostly robust.

The shares were up 2 per cent at 227-3/4 pence as of 8.25am in a lower market.

Its revenues rose 2 per cent to £5.4 billion pounds, ahead of forecasts at £5.3 billion, with good performances from the Global Services and Retail units offsetting weakness at the Wholesale division.

So-called new-wave revenues from broadband and corporate networked IT services represented 42 per cent of sales.

Underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) before specific items and staff leaving costs were up 2 per cent at £1.57 billion ($3.05 billion) for the three months to March 31st, in line with forecasts.

Additional reporting Reuters