LONDON (Reuters) - BT Group (LON:BT), Britain's biggest broadband and mobile provider, reiterated its full-year outlook on Thursday as cost control and demand for broadband helped to offset inflationary pressures.
The group said its adjusted core earnings rose 5% in the first quarter to 2 billion pounds ($2.6 billion), in line with analyst forecasts.
"We've made a strong start to the year, in what remains a very competitive market, with improved customer satisfaction, pro forma revenue growth in all of our business units and pro forma group EBITDA up by 5%," Chief Executive Philip Jansen said in a statement.
Jansen said this month he would step down within the next year, a couple of years before the completion of his ambitious full-fibre roll-out.
Commenting on his decision last week, Jansen said he was "clearly very disappointed about the share price performance on my watch", but he would leave the company stronger, more competitive and with brighter prospects than when he arrived.
Its shares are down 30% in the last year as the cost of building out new fibre and 5G networks, and the hit to free cash flow, weighed on the business.
BT said its Openreach network division was now 44% of the way through its full fibre build, with total fibre connections growing to 3.5 million.
($1 = 0.7724 pounds)