BT Group PLC (LSE:BT.A) announced a downgrade to its guidance for full-year revenue as it continues to be impacted by COVID-19 and supply chain issues.
The group now expects adjusted revenue for the year to end-March 2022 to be 2% lower than in the prior year.
It reaffirmed its full-year guidance for underlying profit in the £7.5bn-£7.7bn range.
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Revenue for the third quarter to 31 December 2021 came in at £5.36bn, down 2% on the same period in the year before and below consensus forecasts for £5.39bn.
Underlying profits (adjusted EBITDA) for the third quarter grew by 4% to £1.96bn, beating market expectations of £1.91bn.
Revenue in first nine months to end-December fell by 3% to £15.67bn, with declines in the Global and Enterprise businesses partly offset by growth in Openreach, BT said.
Nine-months adjusted EBITDA rose by 2% to £5.7bn. BT attributed the improvement to tight cost management, lower indirect commissions and higher revenue from Ethernet and fibre-enabled products, although these factors were partly offset by falls in Global and Enterprise revenues.
Higher finance costs were behind a 3% drop in pre-tax profit to £1.53bn.
BT said its Openreach business is now more than a quarter of the way through its 25mln Fibre to the building (FTTP) target after it delivered an FTTP build of 662,000 in the third quarter at an average rate of over 50,000 per week.
The group has over 1.5mln FTTP end-customers following a rise of 244,000 in the third quarter accelerated by Equinox.
Openreach EBITDA grew by 6% to £807mln in the third quarter on revenue up 4% to £1.36bn.
BT chief executive Philip Jansen commented: "We had another record-breaking quarter on our full fibre build and a pleasing 37% increase in FTTP connections following the launch of Openreach's wholesale pricing offer."
He added that the group's 5G build is also on track and now covers over 40% of the UK population.
In the Enterprise unit, EBITDA fell 8% and revenue was down 6% in the third quarter due to continued declines in legacy products and contracts.
The Global business saw a 4% drop in revenue in the three-month period, while EBITDA plummeted 25% as market conditions remained challenging with negative foreign exchange movements and a fall in order intake.
Net debt was £17.7bn at 31 December 2021, £0.1bn lower than at 31 March 2021.
Shares fell 3.45% to 188.75p in early trade.