BT.A Bt Group Plc

   By Adria Calatayud 
 

BT Group PLC said Friday that revenue and adjusted earnings for the first quarter of fiscal 2021 both fell but by less than expected, as the company issued full-year guidance and said it expects a return to earnings growth beyond this year.

The U.K. telecommunications group said it expects adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization--the company's preferred metric, which strips out exceptional and other one-off items--for the year ending March 31, 2021 to be between 7.2 billion and 7.5 billion pounds ($9.30 billion-$9.82 billion). Adjusted revenue for the year is expected to fall between 5% and 6%, the company said.

For the quarter to June 30, BT made a pretax profit of GBP561 million compared with GBP642 million for the year-earlier period.

BT's adjusted Ebitda fell 7.4% to GBP1.81 billion, against expectations of GBP1.75 billion, according to company-provided consensus estimates.

Quarterly revenue fell to GBP5.25 billion from GBP5.63 billion, exceeding consensus expectations of GBP5.16 billion, the company said.

"Despite our strong operational performance in the first three months of the year, it is clear that Covid-19 will continue to impact our business as the full economic consequences unfold," Chief Executive Philip Jansen said.

Write to Adria Calatayud at adria.calatayud@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 31, 2020 02:39 ET (06:39 GMT)

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