Results round-up

BT’s third quarter revenue increased but earnings were down as the telecoms giant deals with an accounting scandal at its Italian business, while it also faces a more challenging outlook in the UK.

For the quarter ended 31 December 2016, revenue was up 32% to £6.12bn, compared to the previous year, while pre-tax profit fell 37% to £526m and basic earnings per share were down 59% to 3.8p.

On Tuesday, BT cut its profit guidance for the next two years after an investigation into accounting blunders at its Italian business forced it to increase its expected write-downs to £530m from £145m, while the UK business has also seen a deterioration in its outlook.

An investigation alongside accountants from KPMG, which was first announced in October, discovered earnings in the country found to have been overstated for several years.

Its outlook for the 2016 financial year, for adjusted revenue by around £200m, in adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) by around £175m, and by £500m for normalised free cash flow due to the EBITDA impact and the one-off unwind of the effects of inappropriate working capital transactions.

For the UK business revenues for the 2016 and 2017 financial years are both expected to be flat. Normalised free cash flow is now predicted to be around £2.5bn this year and in a range of £3.0-3.2bn in 2017.

Total adjustments relating to the investigation of the Italian business amount to £268m and an item charge of £245m for changes in accounting estimates for previous years.

For the quarter, adjusted EBITDA increased 18% to £1.87bn, with underlying EDITDA adjusted for the acquisition of EE, which it bought in February last year for £12.5bn, was down 8%.

While, net cash flow from operating activities was £1.51bn, down £178m and normalised free cash flow was £606m, down £298m in the quarter.

Bangladeshi generic pharmaceutical products and active pharmaceutical ingredients manufacturer Beximco Pharmaceuticals announced its unaudited financial results for the six months to 31 December on Friday.

The AIM-traded company said net sales increased by 13.6% to BDT 7,630.6m or £79.7m, while profit after tax increased by 17.8% to BDT 1,112.9m or £11.6m in the first half.

For the second quarter, net sales increased 16.0% to BDT 3,865.0m or £40.4m, while profit after tax increased 14.0% to BDT 598.0m or £6.2m.

During the period, the company launched a total of eight new products in the domestic market - three of which were launched for the first time in Bangladesh; Voglibose, Cholecalciferol and Dienogest.

It also commenced US export of Carvedilol, a prescription drug for treating hypertension, in August, making it the first Bangladeshi pharmaceutical company to export pharmaceutical products to the US

Beximco confirmed it also received approval for two more products, Sotalol and Metformin Hydrochloride, from the US FDA in November and December respectively, and the Medicine Patent Pool of the UN granted a sub-license to Beximco Pharma to manufacture Bristol-Myers Squibb's new hepatitis C drug, Daclatasvir.

It also received product approval from Health Canada for the Olopatadine eye drop, which was another first time achievement for a Bangladeshi pharmaceutical company.

Two ophthalmic products were also registered in Australia during the period, and commenced export to Panama, Zimbabwe, Mali and Guinea.