Trending: BT Backs Fiscal Year 2023 Guidance Despite Nine-Month Pretax Profit Fall

1027 GMT--BT Group PLC is among the most mentioned topics across news items over the past four hours, according to Factiva data, after the U.K. telecommunications company reported a fall in nine-month pretax profit but backed its guidance for the year. However, adjusted Ebitda was 3% higher at 5.9 billion pounds ($7.30 billion) due to cost controls and the removal of BT Sport costs, but offset by revenue declines and inflationary pressures. Revenue and Ebitda were in line with expectations, while free cash flow was light due to higher capex and working capital absorption, Citi's Georgios Ierodiaconou and Siyi He said in a note. The fourth quarter of fiscal 2023 is set to benefit from lower capex at Openreach and receivables in Enterprise, while Openreach's broadband line losses improved in its third quarter, which should at least partly alleviate some concerns, they said. Jefferies's Jerry Dellis and Yi Hsin Yeoh said that while BT's wage deal improves cost visibility, it faces free cash flow compression in fiscal 2024 and upside risk to the pension deficit. BT has tailwinds in 2023 as it approaches fiscal 2024, supported by pricing, a competitive consumer market and accelerating fiber-to-the-premise monetization, they wrote. Dow Jones & Co. owns Factiva. ([e-mail])

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February 02, 2023 06:01 ET (11:01 GMT)

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