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☆ BT shares soar as British broadband provider targets another £3 billion in cost cuts
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-16 | by ( Vicky Mckeever | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON — Shares of BT Group surged Thursday after the firm announced a target of a further £3 billion ($3.8 billion) in cost savings. BT shares were up 14.9% at 12:40 p.m. London time after CEO Allison Kirkby said the company had passed peak capital expenditure on its fiber broadband rollout and achieved its £3 billion cost and service transformation program "a year ahead of schedule." BT posted revenue of £20.8 billion ($26.3 billion) for the year to March, up slightly from £20.7 billion in the previous year. The firm is now targeting a further £3 billion in cost savings by the end of the full-year 2029. BT is looking to simplify the company as part of the next phase of its transformation program.

Persons: Allison Kirkby, Kirkby, Philip Jansen, Jansen Organizations: BT Group, BT Locations: London, Kirkby

☆ BT maintains 2024 outlook after Q2 core profit beat
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Nov 2 (Reuters) - BT Group (BT.L), Britain's biggest broadband and mobile provider, posted second quarter earnings slightly ahead of forecasts putting it on track to meet 2024 guidance, in one of the outgoing CEO's final announcements. Strong cost controls helped BT post a 3% rise in adjusted core profit (EBITDA) to 2.06 billion pounds ($2.51 billion) for the three months to the end of September, beating the 2.03 billion pounds consensus forecast. "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," Jansen said in a statement on Thursday. The quarterly result meant BT maintained its outlook to grow revenue and profits for its current 2024 financial year, and the group said it expected free cash flow towards the top end of its 1 billion to 1.2 billion pound range. ($1 = 0.8215 pounds)Reporting by Yadarisa Shabong in Bengaluru and Sarah Young in London; Editing by Savio D'Souza and James DaveyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Allison Kirkby, Sweden's, Philip Jansen, Jansen, Yadarisa, Sarah Young, Savio D'Souza, James Davey Organizations: BT, Britain's, Sweden's Telia, Thomson Locations: Bengaluru, London

☆ BT rises after quarterly earnings beat forecasts
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-02 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

A BT Group Plc logo on a EE/BT Group Plc store in London, UK, on Wednesday, May 17, 2023. BT Group, Britain's biggest broadband and mobile provider, posted a second quarter earnings beat and forecast annual cash flow at the top end of a range, lifting its shares in a parting boost for outgoing CEO Philip Jansen. Shares in BT jumped 5% in early deals, good news for Jansen who is due to step down early next year and has long said he has been disappointed by the group's stock performance. Her job will be to complete Jansen's multi-billion pound push into fibre networks and extending 5G networks, the cost of which has hit free cash flow and weighed on the share price. For the three months to the end of September, BT posted a 3% rise in adjusted core profit (EBITDA) to 2.06 billion pounds ($2.51 billion) beating the 2.03 billion pounds consensus forecast.

Persons: Philip Jansen, Jansen, Hargreaves, Matt Britzman, Allison Kirkby, Sweden's Organizations: BT, BT Group Plc, BT Group Locations: London

☆ Telecoms giant BT Group appoints Allison Kirkby as CEO
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-31 | by ( Ruxandra Iordache | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Kirby has previously served as president and CEO of Swedish telecoms provider Telia, with experience at Virgin Media and Denmark's TDC. She has been a member of the BT Group board for the past four years. His legacy includes BT's push to build a national fibre network, offering discounted wholesale fibre pricing to major broadband providers in exchange for shifting customers to the grid. U.K. telecoms regulator Ofcom in May ruled that BT subsidiary Openreach's Equinox 2 wholesale pricing scheme was allowed. "Based on the evidence available to us, we don't consider Openreach's new pricing discounts to be anti-competitive," Ofcom said at the time.

Persons: Allison Kirkby, Philip Jansen, Kirby, Jansen Organizations: BT Group, Telia, Virgin Media, TDC, BT, Ofcom, Openreach's

☆ New BT boss’s biggest test is investor relations
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, July 31 (Reuters Breakingviews) - BT’s (BT.L) board faced the challenge of hiring a new CEO willing to implement a turnaround strategy decided by their predecessor. It has solved that problem by appointing one of its own members, Allison Kirkby, to the post vacated by outgoing Philip Jansen. Shares in the Swedish telco sank 4% on news of her departure, suggesting Telia’s loss is a gain for BT. Kirkby won’t take over until January 2024 but, having sat on BT’s board for more than four years, she should be able to hit the road running. Keeping these two investors on her side will be the real test for Kirkby at BT.

Persons: Allison Kirkby, Philip Jansen ., Swedish telco, Kirkby won’t, Patrick Drahi’s, Jansen, Pierre Briançon, Liam Proud, Oliver Taslic Organizations: Reuters, Telia Company, BT, Kirkby, Deutsche Telekom, Twitter, Soaring, of Japan, Thomson Locations: Swedish, Kirkby

☆ Fact Check-Liverpool Barclaycard building not being converted to house asylum seekers, says council
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-19 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

A former bank building in Kirkby, Liverpool, in the north of England, is being refurbished for use as offices and is not being converted to house asylum seekers, as social media users claim. Posts circulating online say the former bank building, which is currently being refurbished, is to be converted to house “up to 2,000 asylum seekers” without the knowledge of the public. It said proposals to house asylum seekers would require planning approval from the council, with planning approval subject to public consultation. The building is in fact being promoted as office accommodation, according to Knowsley Council and agents for the building. A former Barclaycard building in Liverpool is being refurbished for use as offices, not to house asylum seekers, according to Knowsley Council and surveyors for the building.

Persons: it’s, Phil Morley, Read Organizations: Knowsley Council, “, “ Kirkby Town Centre, Barclays Bank, … Workers, Reuters Locations: Kirkby, Liverpool, England, “ Kirkby

SummaryCompanies BT boss who spearheaded fibre roll-out to step downJansen simplified former monopoly, retreated from sportsShares nearly halved under his tenureLONDON, July 10 (Reuters) - BT (BT.L) Chief Executive Philip Jansen will step down within the next year, having set plans in motion for Britain's biggest telecoms provider to cut jobs, become leaner and complete the roll-out of a national fibre network. Jansen had informed BT's board of directors that he plans to leave at "an appropriate moment" within the next 12 months, BT said on Monday. Since early 2019, Jansen has steered BT through a crucial period in its 177-year-history, secured funding for a national fibre network for 25 million homes and businesses and handled the arrival of billionaire investor Patrick Drahi on the shareholder register. "We suspect investors will find this transition a little premature given the fruits of BT's fibre investments have still yet to be proven out," analysts at J.P.Morgan wrote in a client note. Analysts named BT's consumer brands boss Marc Allera and Allison Kirkby, a BT board member and chief executive of Sweden's Telia, as possible successors.

Persons: Jansen, Philip Jansen, BT's, Patrick Drahi, J.P.Morgan, Adam Crozier, Marc Allera, Allison Kirkby, Sweden's, Sarah Young, Kate Holton, Sharon Singleton Organizations: BT, Britain's, Discovery, Deutsche Telekom, Ofcom, Thomson Locations: France, United States, Portugal, Israel

☆ Eton College Wrestles With Change in a More Modern Britain
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-06 | by ( Emma Bubola | More About Emma Bubola | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

At Eton College — the boarding school in the British countryside that has educated princes and 20 prime ministers — students wear tailcoats and white ties to classes. But some have worn waistcoats with the symbol of Black History Month underneath. The students still sleep in ivy-covered stone dormitory buildings, some dating to the 18th century. It’s an all boys school, but there also is a feminism society and a celebration of International Women’s Day. “They’re on the right track,” said Alasdair Campbell, a 19-year-old recent graduate.

Persons: “ They’re, ”, Alasdair Campbell, “, Felix Kirkby Organizations: Eton College —

☆ A Superyacht Gave a Lifeline to 100 Migrants Thrown Into the Sea
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-21 | by ( Jason Horowitz | Matina Stevis-Gridneff | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The superyacht Mayan Queen IV was sailing smoothly in clear weather through the dark and calm Mediterranean in the early hours of June 14 when it received a call about a migrant ship in distress four nautical miles away. About 20 minutes later, shortly before 3 a.m., the towering $175-million yacht, owned by the family of a Mexican silver magnate, arrived at the scene. All the four-person crew could see were the lights of a Greek Coast Guard vessel scanning the water’s inky surface. “Horrible,” said the Mayan Queen’s captain, Richard Kirkby, who described the sea as “pitch black” on that nearly moonless night. As many as 650 men, women and children drowned.

Persons: IV, ”, Richard Kirkby Organizations: Greek Coast Guard Locations: Mexican, Monaco, Italy

☆ Telia cuts outlook as soaring energy costs eat into profit
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( Supantha Mukherjee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Electricity prices have hit record levels in Europe after Russia's invasion of Ukraine and a fall in nuclear power production in several countries. Telia, which operates in the Nordic and Baltic countries, has hedged expects electricity costs to go up by 600 million crowns from 2.2 billion in 2022. Despite higher energy costs, quarterly core earnings were broadly in line with market expectations as Telia's business grew in all its markets for the first time in a decade. Third-quarter adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) rose to 8.07 billion Swedish crowns from 7.74 billion a year ago, while analysts had expected 8.13 billion crowns, according to a company-provided poll. In the latest quarter, the company saved 100 million crowns in costs.

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