Results round-up

After completing what it called a "landmark year",BT Group unveiled a £6bn network upgrade programme for its newly acquired EE business and Openreach infrastructure arm, including laying ultrafast fibre-optic broadband lines to around two million premises over the next three years.

Thanks to two months' contribution from EE, the telecoms giant also reported final results that showed a 9% rise in adjusted profits before tax to £3.5bn from a 6% gain in revenue to £18.9bn. Fourth-quarter revenue grew an underlying 1.3% and was 1% ahead of consensus forecasts.

Underlying revenue, excluding transit and specific items, foreign exchange movements and the effect of acquisitions and disposals, was up 2% - the best performance for more than seven years.

EE contributed £261m of operating profit since the acquisition closed on 29 January, helping the group's fourth quarter profits up 14%.

Excluding EE, the results show a more modest growth in annual profits of 1%, helped by performance in the consumer division, in particular sales of BT broadband and TV.

Directors proposed lifting the full year dividend 13% to 14p after adjusted earnings per share rose 5% to 33.2p, with reported EPS up 13% to 29.9p.

Adjusted figures exclude a net £217m worth of items, such as a EE acquisition-related costs and net interest expense on pensions, balanced out by substantial tax credits.

Net debt stood at £9.85bn at the 31 March year end, up from £5.1bn a year before.

"This has been a landmark year for BT," said chief executive Gavin Patterson. "We've completed our acquisition of EE, the UK's best 4G mobile network provider, we've passed more than 25m premises with fibre and we've also delivered a strong financial performance."

Software company Sage reported a drop in first-half pre-tax profit despite a rise in revenue, as it announced an agreement to buy a 20.7% stake in Fairsail.

In the six months to the end of March, pre-tax profit fell 15.6% to £142m, even as revenue rose to £747m from £717m, as the company incurred an exceptional charge of £31m, £22m of which relates to general and administrative expenses.

Organic revenue grew 6.2% in the period, while recurring revenue was up 10% to £513m and the company lifted its interim dividend by 8% to 4.80p per share.

Sage saw software subscription grow to 35.3% from 25.4% in the first half of 2015, while subscription contracts rose 50% to 842,000.

Chief executive officer Stephen Kelly said: “Sage continues to perform and transform. We made a good start to FY16 with double digit recurring revenue growth as validation that customers are embracing closer subscription relationships. High quality organic revenue growth continued to accelerate H1 over H1.

“We are pleased with the early progress made and recognise there is still much to do in the transformation. We remain confident in achieving our full year targets of at least 6% organic revenue growth and organic operating margin of 27%."