Feb 02, 2018 07:00 GMT

BT Group plc (BT.L) today announced its results for the third quarter to 31 December 2017.

Key developments for the quarter

Strategic :

• Openreach to deliver FTTP to 3m premises by the end of 2020; sets course to reach 10m homes and businesses by mid-2020s with the right conditions
• Continued improvement in customer experience metrics; Group NPS¹ up 5.5 points and Right First Time up 3.6%
• BT TV customers to access premium sport and entertainment content under reciprocal wholesale TV deal agreed with Sky
• Triennial valuation of the BT Pension Scheme is proceeding and constructive discussions continue with the Trustee. We are appealing the court decision against changing the index used for pension increases from RPI for Section C members
• Transformation programme and restructuring initiatives on track

Operational :

• Openreach fibre connections at record high of 600,000, with superfast fibre broadband now passing 27.4m UK premises
• BT Consumer revenue generating units per customer increased 3% to 2.02, with ARPU up 5% to £41.3
• Mobile postpaid net additions of 235,000, with low churn of 1.2%; monthly mobile postpaid ARPU down 2% to £26.2
• Average BT Sport viewing increased 23% year on year; best quarterly performance since launch
• Order intake, on a rolling 12-month basis, up 12% to £3,591m for Business and Public Sector, down 38% to £1,257m for Wholesale and Ventures and down 25% to £3,732m for Global Services, reflecting market conditions

Financial :

• Reported revenue down 3% to £5,970m and underlying² revenue down 1.5%
• Adjusted² EBITDA decreased 2% to £1,826m, reflecting investment in mobile devices and customer experience, along with higher business rates and pension costs, partly offset by cost savings
• Net cash inflow from operating activities of £1,596m up £81m, and normalised free cash flow² of £702m up £96m mainly due to working capital phasing
• Full year outlook maintained

Gavin Patterson, Chief Executive, commenting on the results, said

"Our third quarter financial results are broadly in line with our expectations and we remain confident in our outlook for the full year. We continue to improve our customer experience metrics across the Group, with our sixth successive quarter of improved customer perception.

“We continue to work closely with the UK Government, Ofcom and our customers to expand the deployment of fibre and Openreach recently announced plans to accelerate our FTTP deployment to three million premises by the end of 2020.

“We agreed a reciprocal wholesale deal with Sky that will deliver market leading sports and entertainment channels to our BT TV platform by early 2019, reinforcing our strategic goal of being the best provider in the UK of converged network services.

“The triennial valuation of the BT Pension Scheme is proceeding and constructive discussions continue with the BTPS Trustee. We still expect to complete the valuation in the first half of the 2018 calendar year. Our aim remains to deliver fair, flexible and affordable pensions to all of our employees.

“We are delivering against our strategy, capitalising on opportunities and responding to market challenges with a robust set of actions. Looking ahead, we’re confident in the steps we are taking to improve the performance of BT for all our stakeholders.”

¹ Group NPS measures Net Promoter Score in our retail businesses and Net Satisfaction in our wholesale businesses ² See Glossary on page 2 of the full results announcement ³ Measured against the comparative period in the prior year