Britain's BT Group posted a 37 per cent rise in third-quarter profit but showed a slim rise in revenue.
The company, which owns and operates Irish telco Esat, also revealed a widening of its pension deficit, based on the preliminary view from its actuary, to £1 billion-£1.5 billion sterling (€1.56 billion-€2.34 billion) at December 31st, 2002, compared with £200 million at March 31st, 2000.
Profit before taxation, goodwill amortisation and exceptional items was £521 million for the three months to December 31st, 2002, up 37 per cent on the same three months a year earlier.
Group turnover of £4.701 billion was up 1 per cent over the same period.
According to a poll of eight brokers' forecasts, an underlying pre-tax profit of £460-530 million was expected, giving a consensus of £500 million. That compares with a £381 million profit last time.
Revenues of £4.7 billion to £4.83 billion were expected, up some 2.2 per cent on the same quarter a year ago.
The company said net debt was reduced by £195 million to £12.9 billion. It also revealed record broadband sales in January, in excess of 25,000 per week, giving it a customer base of over 650,000 as of February 7th, 2003.
PA