BT results show good returns on NHS contracts

BT have released their annual results, revealing generally good returns with regards to public sector contracts and a turnover of £77m in the past year from contracts with the NHS.

Pre-tax profits across the group were £2.08bn, 4% up on the previous year. ICT revenues were up by 6% compared to the fourth quarter of the previous year, which the company put down to rising revenues from NHS contracts.

However, the consultation and systems integration (C&SI) arm of BT suffered an 8% drop in turnover, which the company put down to "very high initial NHS contract turnover" at the end of last year. With the NHS contracts removed from the equation, states BT’s financial accounts, a figure of 12% growth is reached.

The National Programme for IT awarded BT the contract to supply the new NHS broadband service, N3, as well as contracts for the NHS Care Records Service and the Local Service Provider for London.

Ben Verwaayen, BT’s chief executive, said of the overall results: "This has been an excellent quarter to end an exciting year.

"We have now delivered five consecutive quarters of underlying revenue growth and twelve consecutive quarters of growth in underlying earnings per share. These are great results and we expect to see the overall revenue trends continuing."

"Our global networked IT services business is building strongly and with purpose," added Verwaayen, referring to the strategy of transforming BT from a company focused on telecommunications to IT services.

These "new wave" services now represent over half of the company’s turnover and 28% of revenue. Said Verwaayen: "We are delivering value through transforming the business and are confident that our strategy will continue to deliver value in the future."