BT 1997 Annual Report Download - page 3

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CHAIRMAN’S STATEMENT
3
Financial highlights
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 1997
1997 1996
Turnover £14,935m £14,446m
Profit before taxation £3,203m £3,019m
Profit after taxation £2,101m £1,992m
Earnings per share 32.8p 31.6p
Dividends per share – ordinary 19.85p 18.70p
– special 35.00p –
Capital expenditure £2,719m £2,771m
Your company has continued to
make substantial investments in its
UK network, over the year, to match
the ever-rising level and scope of
service our customers expect. The
growth in demand for advanced
services is especially marked.
For personal customers, the
benefits are clear. Particularly in
such areas as education,
healthcare and public information,
your company is developing
products and services that really do
add value to our customers’ lives.
This has been a record year, too, for
awards to BT on its unique
community programme.
For business customers, the
Internet and corporate intranet
markets are growing at an
exhilarating rate and BT and MCI
in Concert will carry around half of
the world’s Internet traffic.
We are focusing on developing
integrated solutions that meet the
whole range of a company’s needs,
helping it to gain competitive
advantage in its own marketplace.
Electronic commerce, for example,
has the capacity to revolutionise the
way businesses bring their
products to market and interact
with their customers.
On the international front, as we
approach the liberalisation of
telecommunications markets
throughout the European Union
from 1 January 1998, we are
building a presence across the
continent. BT is now particularly
well positioned in all the major
European countries.
The recent agreements that we
have put in place with Spain’s
Telefonica and with Portugal
Telecom illustrate the opportunities
that abound in global
telecommunications markets. We
will be especially well positioned to
seize opportunities in Latin America
and among the Spanish-speaking
communities of the USA.
The Asia-Pacific region is also of
great importance to us. We are
already a leading supplier of
value-added data networks in
Japan. We have significant
initatives underway in each of the
sub-regions.
One particularly encouraging
development was the
announcement, in March, that BT
and Japan’s NTT had joined forces
to bid, with local partners, for a
second telecoms licence in
Singapore.
There is no apparent slowing in the
rate at which new markets and new
opportunities – both geographical
and technical – are emerging.
The demand for communications
services around the world is
intense and it is growing.
This is the world of opportunity
in which Concert will find its
place. Our task is to convert that
opportunity into long-term
shareholder value.
Sir Iain Vallance
Chairman
20 MAY 1997