BT’s new boss, Allison Kirkby, today set out plans to turn the telecoms giant into a “Britain first” company, promising to sell off some parts of the global group and increase dividends for hard-pressed shareholders.
Kirkby, who succeeded Philip Jansen in February, surprised the City with a 4% dividend increase to 8 pence, bringing the total payout to £750 million.
BT has 640,000 shareholders, many of them small investors who joined when the company was privatised in 1984.
The announcement of a restructuring of the global arm is still at an early stage – BT is not taking part in the talks – but City analysts speculate that there are offices in the US, Ireland and Italy where the company could seek another telecoms partner or sell itself entirely.
“BT has to be great for Britain,” says Kirkby.
While there is still a lot of work to be done in rolling out ultra-fast fibre optic internet, Kirby believes the most capital-intensive part of that work is done, allowing BT to be more generous with investors.
BT shares opened today at 113 pence, down 44 percent over the past five years. This is partly due to Jansen’s intensive spending plans, as he put it, to work “with all his might” to strengthen Britain’s internet network.
Sales rose 1% to £20.8 billion in the year to March, while profits fell 31% to £1.2 billion.
Kirkby said: “As we enter the next phase of BT Group’s transformation, we are sharpening our focus on being better for our customers and the country by accelerating the modernisation of our operations and exploring options to optimise our global business. This will create a simpler BT Group, fully focused on connecting the UK and well placed to deliver significant growth for all our stakeholders.”
