Results round-up
Barclays reported a rise in third-quarter pre-tax profit as it benefited form a strong performance in its fixed trading division.
Pre-tax profit for the third quarter was up 35% from the same period a year ago to £837m as revenue from the fixed income division surged 40% to £947m. Excluding one-off items, profit came in at £1.7bn, surpassing analysts’ expectations of around £1.5bn.
Overall revenue in the third quarter was pretty much flat compared to the third quarter of last year at £5.5bn and the bank said it set aside £600m to compensate customers for mis-sold payment protection insurance.
For the nine months to the end of September, profit was down 10% to £2.9bn due to the disposal of the bank’s non-core businesses.
Chief executive Jes Staley said: "Our strategic priorities remain: strengthening our core businesses; closing Barclays Non-Core as fast as possible; progressing the sell down of our stake in Barclays Africa to a point where we can achieve regulatory deconsolidation; eliminating costs in both Core and Non-Core; dealing with legacy issues; and meeting our end state capital requirements.
“Taken together, the picture in the third quarter is one of strong progress against this agenda. Our Core businesses are performing well, Non-Core rundown is approaching the final lap toward closure, we are on top of costs, and our capital position is resilient with strong reasons for confidence in meeting our end state target.
"The growing momentum in attaining our strategic goals means we can feel optimistic of our prospects of completing the restructuring of Barclays - a restructuring to a simplified transatlantic, consumer, corporate and investment bank with the capacity to deliver sustainable high quality returns for shareholders. This quarter has seen us take another important stride toward that state."
Telecommunications provider BT Group announced its results for the second quarter and half year to 30 September on Thursday, with reported revenue up 35% for the quarter, and growth in underlying revenue - excluding transit adjusted for the acquisition of EE - up 1.1%.
The FTSE 100 firm reported earnings per share down 10%, though adjusted earnings per share were up 4%.
Underlying EBITDA adjusted for the acquisition of EE was up 0.9%, and the board declared an interim dividend of 4.85p, up 10%.
It posted a noncash specific item charge of £145m following its initial investigation into inappropriate management behaviour in BT Italia
Net cash inflow from operating activities was £1,734m, up £489m with normalised free cash flow of £894m, up £325m.
BT’s board said that reflected the timing of receipts and payments within the year, with net debt standing at £9,573m.
“This is a positive set of results, both operationally and financially, and we remain on track to achieve our full year outlook,” said chief executive Gavin Patterson.
“We've made good progress on the integration of EE and the delivery of our synergy targets.”
Patterson said BT’s consumer facing lines of business performed well, but in the enterprise space, UK public sector continued to be a challenging market.
“Across the group, we continue to drive cost reduction and productivity improvements. Customer experience remains a key priority, and we're stepping up our investments in the second half of the year.”
Department store chain Debenhams posted a small increase in underlying full-year pre-tax profit on Thursday, but reported profit fell and the company said the trading environment in the second half was more challenging.
Underlying pre-tax profit nudged up 0.5% to £114.1m but reported pre-tax profit was down 10.4% to £101.7m. Revenue edged up to £2.34bn from £2.32bn and Debenhams proposed a final dividend of 2.4p per share, taking the full-year dividend to 3.425p from 3.4p the year before.
Numis had expected Debenhams to report a drop in underlying full-year pre-tax profit to £112.7m from £113.5m amid challenging market conditions.
The company said that as at 3 September, it had a pension deficit of £4.1m compared to a surplus of £26.2m at the end of August 2015. The deficit was driven by the reduction in bond yields, which increases the pension liabilities, partly offset by the growth in the pension asset values.
Chairman Ian Cheshire said: “We have delivered profits in line with market expectations, reflecting a strong performance over peak followed by a tougher second half trading environment. Our strategy to rebalance the business towards non-clothing has supported our performance, with strong progress in Beauty, Gifting and Food."