Telecoms giant BT has revealed falling third-quarter revenues and earnings after it was hit by higher business rates and pension charges.
The group saw adjusted earnings drop 2% to £1.8 billion in its third quarter to December 31, while sales fell 3% to £5.97 billion.
BT put the declines down to increased investment in mobile devices and “customer experience”, along with higher business rates charged on its network assets as well as pension costs.
The company has previously branded business rates as “excessive”.
The group had a pension deficit of £7.9 billion as at the end of December, up from £7.7 billion as at the end of September.
BT, which is a leading employer in Suffolk with a major presence at Adastral Park in Martlesham near Ipswich, is reportedly planning to close its defined benefit pension scheme to future accruals in a bid to plug a gaping funding hole.
The firm said on Friday: “We continue to review the future pension benefits under our main defined benefit and defined contribution schemes in the UK, with the objective of providing fair, flexible and affordable pensions.
“We have completed a consultation with our affected employees and are considering their feedback.”
On a bottom-line basis, pre-tax profits rose 25% to £660 million compared to the same quarter last year, when the firm took a hefty hit from an accounting scandal at its Italian division.
BT said it spent another £9 million in investigation costs in the first half on the scandal, which resulted in a £530 million write-down and a major fall in its share price, knocking £8 billion from its market value.
Chief executive Gavin Patterson said: “Our third-quarter financial results are broadly in line with our expectations and we remain confident in our outlook for the full year.
“We continue to improve our customer experience metrics across the group, with our sixth successive quarter of improved customer perception.
“We continue to work closely with the UK Government, Ofcom and our customers to expand the deployment of fibre and Openreach recently announced plans to accelerate our FTTP deployment to three million premises by the end of 2020.”
On Thursday Openreach, which is owned by BT but independently run, announced a drive that will see around three million homes and businesses linked up to ultrafast fibre broadband by 2020.
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