It has been a gloomy 18 months for shareholders of BT – in particular more than 800,000 individual investors, who depend on dividends from the company to supplement their income.
The telecoms giant axed its pay-out in May last year in order to free up cash to spend on full-fibre roll-out and to meet the cost of restructuring.
Today, the dividend was reinstated, meaning investors can look forward to a pay-out of 2.31p-a-share on 7 February next year.
The move was one of a number of signals in BT’s half-year results pointing to growing confidence at the company.
Another was the revelation that BT has hit its annual £1bn cost savings target 18 months earlier than it was aiming for.
As a result, it is bringing forward the target for achieving £2bn of savings by 2025 by a year.
As Philip Jansen, BT’s chief executive, put it: “This is all part of creating a leaner BT with simplified processes and improved customer experiences.”
Adding to the upbeat tone was news that Openreach, the part of BT that runs the company’s digital network, has enjoyed a record six months and has now rolled out full fibre broadband to almost six million premises.
And with this came a crucial revelation.
BT has decided it does not need to bring in outside partners to hit broadband roll-out targets Pic: BT
At its full year results, in May this year, Mr Jansen indicated for the first time that BT would be prepared to team up with outside partners to hit a target of bringing full fibre broadband to 25 million premises by the end of 2026.
But the company said today that, after an extensive review and holding talks with prospective investors, it had decided not to proceed along these lines.
It said this was due to the cost of building…
Source : skynews
