BT's results offer no debt relief

NEWS The telco giant increased its revenue and its debt for the period ending 31 December 2000 while operating profits remained stagnant. Profits after tax jumped 14 per cent. The story for the first nine months is more dismal. Revenue was up from £13.97bn for 1999 to £15bn, but earnings per share stumbled from 24.9p in 1999 to 17.2p in 2000. Debt currently stands at £19bn and is set to reach long-predicted level of £30bn by the end of March. The company remains on course to split up, with its four international businesses, BT Wireless, BT Ignite, BT Openworld and Yell, set to start independent operations on 1 July 2001. BT is in the process of taking over all of German mobile operator Viag, paying £4.6bn this quarter with another £2.81bn to cover the cost of the 3G licence. Viag's turnover was up 50 per cent to £762m and losses have increased to £496m from the £413m in 1999. The company reported significant gains in mobile and data operations and says there are now 720 ADSL-enabled exchanges in the UK