At Last, Good News from BT Global Services

BT's first-half was a touch light, but also contained the first bout of good news from the Global Services division in two years

Allan C. Nichols, CFA 9 November, 2011 | 6:32PM
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BT Group (BT.) reported fiscal first-half results that were a touch light. Reported revenues declined 3% year over year, spot on with our expectations. We were pleased to see the global services division return to revenue growth. The division has been steadily reducing costs since its problems three years ago, but has also been losing revenues for the past two years. We had thought a complete turnaround for BT would require global services to grow again. However, the growth may be short-lived, as orders in BT's second fiscal quarter fell by £700 million year over year to £1.4 billion due to a particularly large contract extension last year from the Ministry of Defence. Long term, we expect a slow recovery in orders and revenues from the division.

BT's pension fund deficit was hit by the market turmoil, as we expected. The deficit at the quarter's end was £3.3 billion, in line with our projection of a £3 billion shortfall.

Continue reading Morningstar analyst Allan Nichols' report on BT here. Morningstar Equity Research is a feature of Morningstar.co.uk Premium subscription.

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Allan C. Nichols, CFA  is a senior stock analyst and international investing specialist with Morningstar.

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