Pretax profits of €16.5m enjoyed by BT Ireland

THE OPERATIONS of telecoms group BT based in the Republic generated a pretax profit of €16.5 million in the year to the end of March 2010, according to accounts seen by The Irish Times.

This compares to a profit of €3.57 million in 2009 and was achieved despite group revenues declining 1.1 per cent to €466.7 million.

Chief executive of BT Ireland Graham Sutherland said it was a “strong set of results in the circumstances” and that profits at the operating level were up 28 per cent year on year.

He said the company had benefited from change in strategy at the start of its 2010 fiscal year. BT left the consumer telecoms sector and sold that division to Vodafone. The accounts show that 41 staff moved to Vodafone as part of the deal.

BT’s operations in the Republic are now focused on wholesale telecoms and technology services as well as selling to large corporate clients.

It won the contract to provide the emergency call answering service from the State and provided services to 3 Ireland for its roll-out of the national broadband scheme. Mr Sutherland said both these contracts had contributed to the increase in profits.

Mr Sutherland was appointed chief executive of BT Ireland last summer having previously held the post of chief financial officer. He said BT had also benefited from the introduction of a cost-cutting programme four years ago, “before the recession hit”.

The accounts show that sales, general and administration costs were reduced by 18 per cent last year to €72.9 million.

Mr Sutherland said BT now had cash to invest in telecoms infrastructure in Ireland and would be willing to co-invest as part of a Government scheme to roll out high-speed broadband in areas where it was not economically viable.

“I genuinely think the private sector will solve the bulk of the issue,” said Mr Sutherland. He said he was also confident Eircom would come to a deal with its bondholders and would go on to invest in next generation networks.