Britain's Most Admired By Sector: Telecommunications
A traditionally pessimistic BMAC sector, telecoms is the lowest-scoring of all this year.
1 Vodafone 63.0
2 BT Group 60.9
3 Inmarsat 52.9
4 Cable & Wireless 47.6
5 Kingston Communications* 45.5
Bellwether Vodafone welcomed chief exec Vittorio Colao in July, and he has boosted its global ambition: it predicts revenues for the year to March 2009 of around £39bn, with operating profits of £11bn. BT also had a new CEO, former FD Ian Livingston. Second-quarter earnings were up 10.7% but job cuts of 10,000 are on the cards. Satellite telecoms provider Inmarsat is beaming: group pre-tax profit for the three months to September 30 stood at $53.5m, up from $33.6m. Good news at Cable & Wireless: its Ebitda guidance for 2008-09 is up from £725m to £780m.
