Telecommunications giant poised to cut 10,000 more jobs

LONDON, April 13 (KUNA) -- Telecommunications giant, BT, is expected to unveil a further 10,000 jobs cuts, writedowns of about 1.5 billion pounds and a scaling back of its dividend when it announces its preliminary results next month as it axes costs and tries to turnaround its Global Services division, it was revealed here Monday.

The redundancies will be spread across the company's 150,000-member global workforce and follow the 10,000 jobs it has already chopped in the past year, the Guardian newspaper reported. Last month, BT announced a pay freeze for its 85,000 UK staff, including senior management. The company's share price has tumbled to 81 pence, valuing BT at 6.3 billion pounds, and next month's results on May 14 are likely to be viewed as one of the nadirs in its history. However, some analysts believe it could cull more than a further 12,000 jobs. The company is expected to cut its dividend by up to 60 percent.

Its full-year profits are also likely to be hit by contribution to address a pension deficit of more than eight billion pounds. A poor recent performance at Global Services, which provides IT and telecoms services to multi-national companies and government bodies, has hit BT hard, the analysts said. For the third quarter to 31 December, Global Services suffered high costs, slow delivery of cost savings and contract review charges that resulted in an operating loss of 501 million pounds at the division, compared with profits of 22 million pounds in the previous year. Global Services, which employs about 37,000 people, was once viewed as the "jewel in the crown" at BT, but since last October it has triggered two profits warnings. For its third-quarter, BT's group pre-tax profits plunged by 81 percent to 113 million pounds, as soaring costs and writedowns at Global Services took its toll.

Source: http://www.khabrein.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=21721&Itemid=59