Telecommunications company BT Group PLC yesterday projected another job cut of 15,000 in the new fiscal year after its Global Services division dragged the company to a fourth-quarter loss of nearly £1 billion.
In the three months ending March 31, BT recorded a net loss of £977 million (US$1.48 billion), compared with a profit of £426 million a year earlier.
The Global Services unit, a provider of communication services for companies and government agencies, posted a pretax loss of £1.5 billion, raising its total losses for the year to £2 billion.
That swung BT Group to a full-year loss of £83 million, compared with the previous year’s profit of £1.7 billion.
BT said it had cut 15,000 employees in the past year and expected “further reductions of a similar level next year.”
A charge of £1.3 billion, mainly related to two major contracts, was the key factor in Global Services’ loss in the fourth quarter.
“Three out of four of BT’s lines of business have performed well in spite of fierce competition and the global economic downturn,” chief executive Ian Livingstone said.
“However this achievement has been overshadowed by the unacceptable performance of BT Global Services and the resulting charges we have taken,” he said.
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