BT Group PLC is cutting 13,000 managerial and back-office jobs and leaving its London headquarters in the latest attempt by Britain’s biggest telecom to rebuild after an accounting scandal and downturn in trading.
Chief executive Gavin Patterson sought to keep shareholders on side by maintaining its dividend and agreeing a new pension funding plan as part of an attempt to modernize the former state-owned telecom monopoly.
Patterson, in the role since 2013, yesterday said the restructuring, which comes after a tough year last year, would focus on the essential services needed by consumers and businesses.
Photo: Bloomberg
BT, which owns Britain’s biggest mobile operator EE, said it would hire about 6,000 new engineers and front-line customer service staff to support its roll out of fiber and 5G networks.
“This position of strength will enable us to build on the disciplined delivery and risk reduction of the last financial year, a period during which we delivered overall in-line with our financial and operational commitments whilst addressing many uncertainties,” Patterson said.
The job cuts, the highest number by the former monopoly since 2008, will save ￡1.5 billion (US$2.03 billion) in costs in three years, the company said. The restructuring will cost ￡800 million to implement.
BT also agreed a new 13-year funding plan for its pension, which had a deficit of ￡11.3 billion at the end of June. It is to pay ￡2.1 billion into the scheme by 2020 and a further ￡2 billion would be funded by the issuance of bonds.
The strategy comes after the group reported a 3 percent drop in fourth-quarter revenue to ￡5.967 billion, just missing analysts’ expectations, while core earnings came in at ￡2.083 billion, up 1 percent.
BT said its outlook for the current financial year, to the end of March, would see a 2 percent drop in underlying revenue, while adjusted core earnings would be in the range ￡7.3 billion to ￡7.4 billion, down from ￡7.5 billion last year.
SEMICONDUCTORS: The German laser and plasma generator company will expand its local services as its specialized offerings support Taiwan’s semiconductor industries Trumpf SE + Co KG, a global leader in supplying laser technology and plasma generators used in chip production, is expanding its investments in Taiwan in an effort to deeply integrate into the global semiconductor supply chain in the pursuit of growth. The company, headquartered in Ditzingen, Germany, has invested significantly in a newly inaugurated regional technical center for plasma generators in Taoyuan, its latest expansion in Taiwan after being engaged in various industries for more than 25 years. The center, the first of its kind Trumpf built outside Germany, aims to serve customers from Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia and South Korea,
Gasoline and diesel prices at domestic fuel stations are to fall NT$0.2 per liter this week, down for a second consecutive week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to drop to NT$26.4, NT$27.9 and NT$29.9 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to fall to NT$24.8 per liter at CPC stations and NT$24.6 at Formosa pumps, they said. The price adjustments came even as international crude oil prices rose last week, as traders
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which supplies advanced chips to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday reported NT$1.046 trillion (US$33.1 billion) in revenue for last quarter, driven by constantly strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips, falling in the upper end of its forecast. Based on TSMC’s financial guidance, revenue would expand about 22 percent sequentially to the range from US$32.2 billion to US$33.4 billion during the final quarter of 2024, it told investors in October last year. Last year in total, revenue jumped 31.61 percent to NT$3.81 trillion, compared with NT$2.89 trillion generated in the year before, according to
PRECEDENTED TIMES: In news that surely does not shock, AI and tech exports drove a banner for exports last year as Taiwan’s economic growth experienced a flood tide Taiwan’s exports delivered a blockbuster finish to last year with last month’s shipments rising at the second-highest pace on record as demand for artificial intelligence (AI) hardware and advanced computing remained strong, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. Exports surged 43.4 percent from a year earlier to US$62.48 billion last month, extending growth to 26 consecutive months. Imports climbed 14.9 percent to US$43.04 billion, the second-highest monthly level historically, resulting in a trade surplus of US$19.43 billion — more than double that of the year before. Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) described the performance as “surprisingly outstanding,” forecasting export growth
RSS