BT Group PLC results for the first quarter to 30th June 2013

BT Group plc (BT.L) today announced its results for the first quarter to 30June 2013.

Ian Livingston, Chief Executive, commenting on the results, said:

“BT continues to make good progress,delivering another quarter of solid growth in underlying profit before tax. This is despite the impact of regulation and thesignificant investments we are makingfor the future.

“It is early days but we are very pleasedwith the strong start in BT Sport. More than half a millionhouseholds have now ordered BT Sport and that’s beforethe channels have even launched.

“Our consumer line loss is at its lowest level in five years and we took a 50% share of the broadband4market net additions.Our SME business grew revenues by 1%, the best performance in more than four years, and our BT Global Services order intake was up almost 50%.

“Fibre remains at the heart of our plans and take-up isstrong. Our fibre network now passes more than 16 million premises with more than 1.7 million connected.

“I am immensely proud to have led BT over the last five years. The foundations are in place for an exciting future and I’m confident that BT will make even more progress under Gavin’s leadership and our talented team.”

RESULTS FOR THE FIRST QUARTER TO 30JUNE 2013

Group results

Line of business results2

1Restated, see Note 1 to the condensed consolidated financial statements
2 Before specific items. Specific items are defined below
3 Before specific items, purchases of telecommunications licences, pension deficit payments and the cash tax benefit of pension deficit payments
n/m = not meaningful

Notes:

1. Unless otherwise stated, operating costs, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), operating profit, profit before tax, net finance expense, earnings per share (EPS) and normalised free cash flow are measured before specific items. The commentary focuses on the trading results on an adjusted basis being before specific items. This is consistent with the way that financial performance is measured by management and is reported to the Board and the Operating Committee and assists in providing a meaningful analysis of the trading results of the group. The directors believe that presentation of the group’s results in this way is relevant to the understanding of the group’s financial performance as specific items are those that in management’s judgement need to be disclosed by virtue of their size, nature or incidence. In determining whether an event or transaction is specific, management considers quantitative as well as qualitative factors such as the frequency or predictability of occurrence. Specific items may not be comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies. Reported revenue, reported operating costs, reported EBITDA, reported operating profit, reported profit before tax,reported net finance expense, reported EPS and reported free cash flow are the equivalent unadjusted or statutory measures.

1. Underlying revenue, underlying costs and underlying EBITDA are measures which seek to reflect the underlying performance of the groupthat will contribute to long-term profitable growthand as such exclude the impact of acquisitions and disposals, foreign exchange movements and any specific items. We focus on the trends in underlying revenue excluding transit revenue as transit traffic is low-margin and is significantly affected by reductions in mobile termination rates.