BT shares slide

Operating profit stagnant

Investors were unimpressed with BT's Q3 results announced this morning wiping almost 8 per cent off the value of the company in the first three hours of trading.

BT shares fell 53p to 627p as the monster telco reported stagnant operating profits of £836 million - up just £4 million on the same period last year.

And that's despite increased group turnover of 10.8 per cent from £4.74 billion for Q3 in 1999, compared to £5.25 billion in Q3 2000.

BT confirmed it was still on target to be in debt by £30 billion at the end of its financial year end, although expects this to be reduced by £10 billion following restructuring.

All in all, it's been a bad 24-hours for the monster telco. Not only are its Q3 results disappointing, it's facing legal action over concerns that it has distorted the roll-out of ADSL by favouring its own ISP. And last night it picked up the "Internet Villain" award at Britain's "Internet Oscars". ®

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