Scottish Daily Mail

POPULAR SHARES

Our guide to the stocks that matter

- LAITH KHALAF senior analyst Hargreaves Lansdown

PHILIP Jansen is the new boss of BT, and has a job on his hands reviving its flagging fortunes.

The consumer bit of BT has a big chunk of the market, serving millions of households, so its focus is getting existing customers to take out more products. Bundling together broadband, TV and mobile phone services is key to success here.

Less than half of BT’s revenues come from these consumer services, though, and elsewhere things haven’t been going so well. Openreach, the exchanges and cables arm, has been under pressure to roll out faster broadband and reduce prices. BT’s business services division has witnessed falling revenues from the public sector. The pension scheme, meanwhile, still has a £4.5bn black hole in it.

In response BT is simplifyin­g and cutting costs, to the tune of £1.5bn a year.

Will it work? Jansen may put his stamp on proceeding­s at BT’s full-year results in May. Until then it’s very much a case of wait and see.

 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom