BT FORKS OUT £225m

BT Group has paid £225million to rivals Deutsche Telekom and Orange to avoid legal action stemming from the recent Italian accounting scandal.

Deutsche and Orange became BT shareholders when they sold EE to it in 2015 and were issued with a warranty to protect against a drop in BT’s performance. BT’s share price collapsed after it was forced to take a £530m write down this year following the scandal in Italy.

The charge, alongside increased pension costs and sports programme rights, left BT’s first quarter profits down 42% at £418m. Revenues dropped 1% to £5.8billion.

BT has added 210,000 mobile subscribers over the period and 170,000 fibre broadband users. It also announced a rejig of its consumer business to take in BT, EE and Plusnet. It will be headed up by Marc Allera.