BT Ireland today announced the results of its all-island operation for the year to March 31st 2014.
Revenue of £661.6m was up 2% year-on-year excluding transit revenue and the impact of foreign exchange movements. Profit (EBITDA) was down 5% year on year as a result of once off costs associated with the provision of new managed services contracts and restructuring costs within the business.
Colm O’Neill, chief executive, BT Ireland said: “Our full year results reflect our continued growth in the Irish market as we added new customers, including a number of global multi-national corporations and large indigenous exporters. We successfully delivered several large projects, while in Northern Ireland, the rollout of our world class fibre network has supported revenue growth as consumer demand for fibre broadband increases. In turn, we continued to manage our costs carefully and invested in our core network to enhance our service and better support our customers.”
BT Ireland’s Business division increased its revenue following a number of new contract wins within the year, in particular from global multi-national corporations and large Irish exporting organisations. Customer contracts signed within the year include Pioneer Investments and Ardagh. In addition, BT Ireland picked up a number of top industry partner accolades including three Cisco awards –Gold Partner of the Year in Ireland; UK and Ireland Enterprise Partner of the Year; and Global EMEAR Partner of the Year. BT Ireland was also recognised as Avaya’s Partner of the Year for a second consecutive year.
Colm O’ Neill continues: “Our significant local presence combined with the BT global networking capability means we are very well placed to meet the requirements of global MNC’s and indigenous exporting companies in Ireland. This capability delivered well for us throughout the year and continues to form a major part of our growth strategy for the business.”
Revenue in BT Ireland’s Wholesale business continued to grow despite continued industry challenges with intensified competition, price erosion and market consolidation. Growth in the wholesale division was underpinned by a number of new and renewed contract agreements as well as Sky Ireland’s successful entry into the voice and broadband market. BT Ireland’s wholesale agreement with Setanta Sports, the exclusive distributor of BT Sport in the Republic of Ireland further contributed to this growth.
BT’s network investment within the year included deploying the first commercial 100GB core network in the Republic of Ireland. In upgrading to 100GB Ethernet technology, BT is now enabling its wholesale customers to provide truly unlimited broadband services to their customers at competitive prices. In Northern Ireland, BT has contributed further investment in the rollout of its world class fibre network as it undertakes a major new rural broadband improvement project on behalf of the Department of Enterprise, Trade & Investment.
In the UK, BT’s Consumer division generated revenue growth of 4% with this strong performance driven primarily by higher broadband and TV revenue reflecting the benefit of BT Sport. BT now has around 3 million direct BT Sport customers and, including wholesale deals, the service is in around 5 million homes.
In January 2014 BT delivered the largest and most successful BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition to date as it celebrated its 50th year. The milestone event, which is BT’s largest corporate responsibility initiative on the island of Ireland and a core component of its Better Future programme, attracted almost 50,000 visitors over three days to the RDS and showcased 550 projects from students across both the Republic and North of Ireland