Proactive Investors - BT Group PLC (LON:BT.A) backed full-year guidance after reporting flat revenue and a slight rise in earnings at the half-way stage.
The FTSE 100-listed telco said revenue in the half-year to 30 September 2023 was £10.41 billion, up slightly from £10.37 billion while adjusted EBITDA climbed 6% to £4.09 billion from £3.87 billion.
In the second quarter, sales rose 2% to £5.25 billion with adjusted EBITDA up 3% to £2.06 billion, a touch ahead of forecast.
Revenue reflected increased fibre-enabled product sales, inflation-linked pricing and improved lower margin trading in Business, partially offset by legacy product declines, while earnings benefited from strong cost control.
Reported capital expenditure of £2.3 billion was down 11% with lower fixed network spend driven by lower FTTP (fibre to the premises) build unit costs.
Philip Jansen, chief executive 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.”
BT said its transformation programme has now delivered £2.5 billion in annualised savings, well on track to meet its £3 billion savings target by 2025.
The firm also confirmed full-year guidance.
Jansen said: “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.”
FTTP build rate accelerated to 66,000 per week, delivering a record of 860,000 premises in the quarter, with the FTTP footprint now expanded to 12 million premises with a further 6 million where initial build is underway.
BT reported strong customer demand in Openreach for FTTP with net adds of 364,000 in the second quarter, bringing take-up rate to 33%.
Openreach broadband average revenue per user (ARPU) grew by 10% year-on-year due to price rises and increased volumes of FTTP while consumer broadband ARPU for the year to date increased 4% year-on-year.
The firm paid a 2.31p dividend.