BT Group (LON: BT.A) is in focus today after announcing plans of lowering its headcount by more than 40% by the end of this decade.
BT to cut about 55,000 jobs in total
On Thursday, the British multinational said it will trim roughly 55,000 jobs in total over the next five to seven years. Nearly 20% of those, it added, will be related to automation and digitisation that also includes the use of artificial intelligence.
The bigger chunk of layoffs, though, will materialise as the London-based company winds down construction of fibre and 5G networks. In the press release, CEO Philip Jansen said:
By continuing to build and connect like fury, digitise the way we work and simplify our structure, by the end of the 2020s, BT Group will rely on a much smaller workforce and a significantly reduced cost base.
The news arrives only days after peer Vodafone said it will cut 11,000 jobs through the next three years as Invezz reported here. For the year, BT stock is up more than 20% at writing.
BT says its profit declined 12% in fiscal 2023
Also on Thursday, BT Group reported a hit to its pre-tax profit for fiscal 2023.
The telecom giant said its profit before tax sunk 12% in the recently concluded year to £1.73 billion ($2.16 billion) due to increased depreciation. In comparison, analysts had called for £1.92 billion instead.
BT Group paid a final dividend of 5.39 pence per share on Thursday even though its revenue also ticked down slightly from £20.85 billion last year to £20.68 billion in fiscal 2023.
Nonetheless, Wall Street currently has a consensus “overweight” rating on BT stock that lost more than 5.0% today.
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