BT shakes the debt mountain

Despite reporting declining profits, BT has made strong gains on the FTSE this morning.

Shares were up more than seven per cent after the troubled telco announced it had sliced a further £2.9bn from its debt mountain, though this still leaves a fairly sizeable debt of £13.6bn.

The group turned in pre-tax profits of £381m, down 21 per cent on the same period of last year. Even so, this is at the higher end of analysts' expectations.

The figures exclude revenues from mm02, previously BT Cellnet which was demerged a couple of months ago.

The company has also confirmed that it will slash wholesale broadband prices "substantially".

Trading this morning saw the company gain 7.71 per cent valuing shares at 244 pence.