BT Group PLC's (LSE:BT.A) third-quarter results on Thursday will coincide with the first day for new chief executive Allison Kirkby.
Kirby, who joins from the same role at Swedish telecoms firm Telia, replaces Philip Jansen after his five years in the hot seat.
Some investors and analysts are seeing the appointment of a new CEO as a change to reset expectations around various major issues, such as the pensions deficit, ongoing fibre broadband rollout, struggles of the business-focused unit and rise of 'alt-net' competition, among others.
But it should be just "business as usual", argues Deutsche Bank, as Kirkby is "familiar with the issues facing BT" by virtue of her five years of board tenure at the FTSE 100 company and her prior roles in the sector, with telcos facing similar challenges everywhere.
The third-quarter update on 1 February has "already been relegated to a 1-page release" with no conference call, the bank's analysts noted, so do not expect any 'event' with Kirkby giving detailed views on any strategy tweaks until full-year results in May.
At Jansen's swansong half-year results update in the autumn, full-year guidance was hiked, including for free cash flow (FCF) towards the top of the £1.0-1.2 billion range.
The City consensus is currently expecting 1.8% revenue growth to £20.8 billion and underlying profits (adjusted EBITDA) to grow to £8.14 billion. and FCF of £1.11 billion.
Jansen on the button
On balance, Jansen did the right things with "fury", the analysts felt, not least remedying BT's lethargy on full fibre and cutting costs and wholesale rates to defend against alt-nets, though customer losses are already at the worse end of management expectations and intensifying.
"We expect Ms Kirkby to stay on the same path (fibre, all-IP, costs) with a hopefully deft hand with regard unions, government, regulator and customer relations."
While headwinds and uncertainties remain, the company offers a wide target for the "increasingly better organised and coalescing alt-nets against the backdrop of a sluggish economy".
In the absence of an outright offer for the company, "improbable though not impossible despite the current rates, political, economic and competitive climate", Deutsche reiterated its 'hold' rating and unchanged share price target of 145p.
BT shares were up 0.9% at 116.3p on Friday lunchtime, where the bank noted they are heading back "towards levels from which they have previously bounced", with the 7% slide this month substantially below peers.
"This could see the stock sensitive to more positive sounding news (eg. better out-turns for retail broadband net adds) or even Openreach line losses but on balance we expect any positivity on this front to be temporary and material risks to sentiment remain, particularly around alt-net success, not to mention increasing ambition from Virgin Media O2 around fibre and wholesale."