BT blames coronavirus for 7pc revenue drop

The Telco has also announced MTN Group CEO joins as new BT Enterprise CEO

BT has reported a seven per cent drop in revenue for the second quarter of 2020.

The telco has put this down to the coronavirus, as revenue dropped to £5.24 billion, heavily impacted by reduced BT Sports earnings.

This has led BT to adjust its earnings for the year to be between £7.2 billion to £7.5 billion, a drop of five to six per cent.

For the same quarter last year BT reported revenue of £5.6bn in the period of April to the end of June.

BT also revealed a sharp drop in profit before tax with this declining 13 per cent to £561 million, while adjusted EBITDA also dropped seven per cent.

However BT has confirmed its Openreach business is on track to reach 4.5 million premises with its FTTP rollout by March 2021.

BT chief executive Philip Jansen said: “Although uncertainties remain, we are now able to provide an outlook for this financial year.

“Despite our strong operational performance in the first three months of the year, it is clear that Covid-19 will continue to impact our business as the full economic consequences unfold.

“Beyond this year and based on current expectations, we expect to return the business to sustainable adjusted EBITDA growth, driven in part by the recovery from Covid-19.”

New BT Enterprise CEO

BT has also announced BT Enterprise CEO Gerry McQuade is to retire, with MTN Group CEO Rob Shutter replacing him as CEO.

McQuade has spent 12 years at BT and EE, initially joining BT as the CEO of Wholesale.

Shutter has previously served as CEO of Vodafone’s European Cluster and as Vodafone Netherlands CEO, prior to joining MTN Group.

Commenting on his appointment Shutter said: “BT Enterprise has a key role to play in delivering the BT ambition of becoming the world’s most trusted connector of people, devices and machines and I am excited to be part of that journey.”