Shareholder
Exclusive
September 2013
The spirit of
London 2012
lives on at BT
BT is partnering with Join In,
the London 2012 volunteering
legacy charity, to encourage people
across the country to give their time
and make a difference in their
local communities.
Read more on page 6.
2 Chairman’s message
4Become an e-shareholder
6Making a difference
in local communities
8
Great offers and prize draws
10The year so far and looking
to the future
tic
Fantas nd
offers aaws
r
prize d e
insid
Sporting celebrities and athletes support Join In, clockwise from top left:
John Inverdale, Lee McConnell, Sharron Davies and Dave Moorcroft
A message from
your Chairman
We held our AGM in Edinburgh
this year and you can find full
details of the meeting, including
the voting results, online at
www.bt.com/btagm2013
The strategy that we
have in place remains
the right one.
At the meeting, I reported another
year of delivery for all our
stakeholders, with financial results
either meeting or exceeding
expectations. We continue to
invest in the future of our business,
including outside the UK where
we are driving investment in the
high-growth regions of the world.
Across the UK, our rollout of fibre
optic cable to provide faster
broadband continued at a worldbeating pace. Fibre broadband
is now available to more than
16 million premises. That number
is growing every week, and more
than 1.7 million homes and
businesses have chosen to take
up the service. We are also working
to help people develop the skills
and confidence they need to make
the most of broadband and all
the advantages it can bring.
We launched BT Sport, which is
free to all BT Broadband customers,
on 1 August. After just three
months, more than a million
households were ready to enjoy
the start of the Barclays Premier
League. This is a positive start
and clearly demonstrates BT’s
commitment to helping deliver
an Olympic legacy.
The strategy that we have in place
remains the right one. Our aim is
to drive profitable revenue growth
and increase profits and cash so
that we can continue to invest in
2
the business, reduce net debt,
support our pension fund – and pay
you progressive dividends.
I am pleased to report that at the
AGM our shareholders approved
a final dividend of 6.5 pence (up
14%), meaning a 14% increase in
the full year dividend to 9.5 pence.
We expect dividends to grow by
10-15% a year for the next
two years.
At the AGM, I also mentioned how
seriously we take our obligations
to society, the environment and
the communities in which we
operate. The things we do in these
areas are integral to our business
strategy. We have tangible goals in
place for abating carbon emissions
for customers and delivering
a measurable social impact.
You can see the progress we are
making at bt.com/betterfuture
The foundations are in place for
an exciting future. Our vision
continues to be one of creating
a better business – one that helps
to create a better future for our
investors and all of the many other
people who have a stake in the
ongoing success of BT.
Sir Michael Rake
Chairman
September 2013
BT Sport studio on launch day, 1 August
3
Become an
e-shareholder and
you could win one
of our great prizes
You’ll receive shareholder communications
electronically and have dividends paid direct
to your bank or building society account.
Become an e-shareholder
in two easy steps
Sign up and you could win
a VIP trip up the BT Tower*
1. Register your
e-shareholder account
Go to: www.btplc.com/signup
All you need is your Shareholder reference
number (from your dividend voucher) and
your email address.
2. Choose direct
dividend payment
When you receive your activation code in the
post, just add your bank or building society
account details online, or fill in the form
attached to your dividend cheque. Simple!
4
Become an e-shareholder and be automatically
entered into a free prize draw to win one of
250 VIP trips for two people to the top of the
BT Tower. To be an e-shareholder you must
have your dividend paid directly to your bank
or building society account and have signed
up for e-communication.
Sign up at www.btplc.com/signup
Sign up by 31 October for the chance to win these great prizes:
Win tickets
to the Clare
Balding show*
Become an e-shareholder and
you could win a pair of tickets to
the Clare Balding Show at the new
BT Sport studio where you will be
part of the live studio audience
and watch Clare interview three
stars from the sporting world.
Free £30 voucher
for Naked Wines*
A three night
Get your hands
weekend break with on the new iPad
Warner Leisure*
mini*
Register as an e-shareholder
and receive a £30 credit to spend
against an order of a 6 or 12 bottle
case of wine.
Sign up as an e-shareholder and be
entered into our free prize draw to
win a three-night break to Holme
Lacy House in Herefordshire – a
fabulous Georgian manor surrounded
by 20 acres of restored formal
gardens and landscaped parkland.
– Stylish Signature room
– Delicious breakfasts and 3-course
evening meals
– Live entertainment every night
– Range of daytime activities
– Use of sports and leisure facilities
Plus, win a case of champagne!*
All new e-shareholders will also
be entered into a free prize draw
to win a 6 bottle case of Moutard
Champagne.
All new e-shareholders will be
entered into our free prize draw
to win a new iPad mini.
There’s a lot to like about the
new iPad mini. Thin,light and
full of features, it can do just
about anything.
Enter the draw by signing up
as an e-shareholder.
* To enter and for terms and conditions of all e-shareholder prize draws go to www.btplc.com/signup
All prize draws close on 31 October 2013.
5
Making a difference
in local communities
BT has always believed in the powerful impact of volunteering.
We actively encourage our employees and other stakeholders
to give their time and expertise to make a real difference
to local communities.
Join in
Together with the London 2012 volunteering
legacy charity Join In, BT aims to build a new
social movement around volunteering.
In July, BT was the Presenting Partner of the
UK’s biggest volunteering event. Hundreds
of BT people were part of the 30,000-strong
crowd at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park at
the Join In Go Local event, which inspired a new
army of volunteers to help at grassroots sports
clubs across the UK. This summer, there have
been over 10,000 Join In events across the UK
for people to volunteer at their local sports clubs
and community groups. You can be the first
to hear about Join In and future volunteering
opportunities in your area.
Sign up at
www.joininuk.org/signup
The crew of BT’s Hot Air Balloon
Join In Go Local volunteering event
Join In Go Local volunteering event
6
43,600
work days spent volunteering
by BT people
£13million
in-kind support and assistance
by BT people
Better Future
programme
BT has taken the lead in promoting
charitable doing. We were one of the
first companies to start measuring
volunteering days. Last year, BT people
spent 43,600 work days volunteering
in the community, providing over
£13 million of in-kind support and
assistance to the organisations they
helped. Skills-based giving is part of
our Better Future programme.
Find out more at
www.btplc.com/betterfuture
The Supporters Club
Sported
The Supporters Club is an exciting initiative which brings
together BT, our BT Sport partners and Comic Relief, using
the power of sport to help disadvantaged young people,
both here in the UK and around the world. BT Sport
customers are invited to make a recurring monthly donation
of £1, £3 or £5 via their BT bill. The money raised is being
used to fund the coaches, mentors and teachers that these
young people need to help them fulfil their potential.
Sported is the other London 2012
legacy charity. It focuses on ‘sport
with purpose’ – providing young
people with opportunities to develop
the skills they’ll need for the workplace.
BT is providing volunteer mentors to
Sported, helping the charity to expand
its work across the UK and help young
people reach their true potential.
BT will match pound for pound the amount donated by
its customers, up to £1 million, as well as donating another
£500,000 through various initiatives and covering the
running costs of the fund so that 100% of donations go
straight to The Supporters Club.
Find out more at www.sported.org.uk
Find out more at
www.thesupportersclub.org
Clare Balding at the Riding for the Disabled Association, the first charity supported by
The Supporters Club. You can watch the TV documentary on BT Sport (www.btsport.com)
The Supporters Club fund is managed by Comic Relief which is a registered charity, No. 326568 (England/Wales); SC039730 (Scotland)
7
Great offers and
prize draws for BT
shareholders
Enter our prize draw to win the Fujitsu AH512
Intel Pentium B960 Notebook*
*A
ll prize draws close on 31 October 2013.
To enter and for terms and conditions go to www.btplc.com/signup
8
Win a pair of tickets to the BT Carol Concert*
This year we are pulling out all the stops to celebrate
25 years of the BT Carol Concert – it really will be a
night to remember and tickets are expected to fly out
of the box office even faster than they did last year.
We’re offering two lucky shareholders the chance
to win a pair of tickets.
To enter go to www.btplc.com/signup
Exclusive offers on the
latest technology
Warner Leisure Hotels,
just for grown-ups
Available for BT shareholders at the BT Shop.
Hurry, they’re only available for a limited time!
Visit www.bt.com/shop/shareholder
or call 0800 917 0514
Take advantage of our BT Shareholder Offer and
save up to 50% on selected 3 and 4 night breaks.
PLUS save an EXTRA £10 off per person! To book
call 0800 1 388 399 quoting code 87PHC, or visit
www.warnerhotels.co.uk/phc
For more of our great offers go to www.bt.com/shareholderoffers
9
The year so far
As many of you will have read in
our latest quarterly financial results
(published on 25 July 2013), we
continue to make good progress,
having delivered another quarter
of solid growth in underlying profit
before tax. This is despite the impact
of regulation and the significant
investments we are making for
the future.
Although it’s early days,
we are very pleased
with the strong start
in BT Sport.
Delivering faster broadband over
fibre optic cable remains at the heart
of our plans. Take-up is strong, with
265,000 users added in the quarter.
This continued investment and focus
on deploying fibre into regional
areas of the UK is helping the
Government to achieve its goal of
more than 90% fibre availability
in the next few years.
Although it’s early days, we are very
pleased with the strong start in BT
Sport. This promises to be a great
product showing many of the best
matches and events, presented by
some of the leading talent in the UK.
1m
Over 1 million
households with
BT Sport
10
The number of fixed lines in the
UK grew by 12,000 compared with
a 44,000 decline in the first quarter
last year. Our SME business delivered
its best revenue performance in
more than four years.
BT Wholesale made a strong start
to the year with a total order intake
of £509m. BT Global Services also
delivered a strong order intake, up
almost 50%, and we saw a doubledigit increase in revenue in the
high-growth regions of the world.
I am immensely proud to have led
BT over the last five years. The
foundations are in place for an
exciting future and I’m confident
that BT will make even more progress
under the leadership of Gavin
Patterson and our talented team.
Ian Livingston
Chief Executive
Looking to the future
This is a very exciting time for BT
and I’m looking forward to the
challenges ahead.
We are making a number of
investments in the group: in
our networks, for example fibre
broadband and mobile; in our
products, such as TV; and in the
quality of service we provide
to our customers.
We are making a
number of investments
in the group: in our
networks, for example
fibre and mobile.
My first priority is to make sure
that we execute well on these
investments. Secondly, we need
to keep investing in the long-term
future of our business while
delivering on our financial promises
in the short-term. If we achieve
these goals, then we will grow
cash flow sustainably, which is
another important priority.
All of this will be achieved through
delivering on the strategy that we
set a few years ago. It is a strategy
which I played a fundamental part
in creating. It focuses on improving
our customer service, transforming
our cost base and investing in our
future. This will make BT a better
business with a better future.
Gavin Patterson
CEO, BT Retail,
Group Chief Executive designate
16m
Fibre broadband
now available to
over 16 million
premises
11
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