New BT boss Allison Kirkby today set out plans to make the telecom giant a “Britain first” business as she pledged to sell off some parts of the global company and up the dividend to long-suffering shareholders.
Kirkby, who arrived in February to replace Philip Jansen, surprised the City with an increase in the dividend to 8p, a 4% rise that takes the total payout to £750 million.
BT has 640,000 shareholders, many of the them smaller investors who bought in when the company was privatised in 1984.
The promise to shake-up the global arm is at an early stage -- BT is not in talks – but City analysts speculate that there businesses in the US, Ireland and Italy where the company could seek another telecom partner, or sell out altogether.
“BT needs to be great for the UK”, says Kirkby.
While there remains much to be done on the rollout of ultra-fast fibre internet cable, Kirby thinks the most capital intensive part of that work is done, allowing BT to be more generous to investors.
BT shares opened today at 113p – down 44% in the last five years partly due to the intensive spending plans under Jansen to, as he put it, “build like fury” to boost the UK’s internet network.
Revenue for the year to March rose 1% to £20.8 billion, while profits slipped 31% to £1.2 billion.
Kirkby said: “As we move into the next phase of BT Group's transformation, we are sharpening our focus to be better for our customers and the country, by accelerating the modernisation of our operations, and by exploring options to optimise our global business. This will create a simpler BT Group, fully focused on connecting the UK, and well positioned to generate significant growth for all our stakeholders.”
