Charting our progress
Our investments are delivering for the business and we expect them to support our goal of sustainable, profitable revenue growth. Combined with a continued focus on cost transformation across the group, we aim to grow our EBITDA. This will drive long-term cash flow growth for the business. We will continue our prudent financial policy of investing in our business, reducing net debt, supporting the pension fund and paying progressive dividends.
| 2013/14 | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | 2016/17 | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | YoY change | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue1 | £18,287m | £17,840m | £18,879m | £24,082m | £23,746m | £23,459m | -1% |
Underlying revenue2 excluding transit |
+0.5% | -0.4% | +1.9% | -0.2% | -1% | -0.9% | |
| EBITDA1 | £6,116m | £6,193m | £6,459m | £7,645m | £7,505m | £7,392m | -2% |
| Profit before taxation1 | £2,827m | £3,094m | £3,351m | £3,532m | £3,444m | £3,230m | -8% |
| Earnings per share1 | 28.2p | 30.6p | 31.8p | 28.9p | 27.9p | 26.3p | -6% |
| Full year dividend | 10.9p | 12.4p | 14.0p | 15.4p | 15.4p | 15.4p | unchanged |
| Capital expenditure3 | £2,346m | £2,317m | £2,622m | £3,454m | £3,522m | £3,637m | +3% |
| Normalised free cash flow4 | £2,450m | £2,830m | £3,098m | £2,782m | £2,973m | £2,440m | -22% |
| Net debt | £7,857m | £5,113m | £9,838m | £8,932m | £9,627m | £11,035m | +15% |
| Our people | 87,800 | 88,500 | 102,500 | 106,400 | 105,800 | 106,700 | |
| Total Openreach broadband lines | 18.5m | 19.3m | 19.9m | 20.4m | 20.7m | 21.1m | |
| of which fibre* | 2.7m | 4.2m | 5.9m | 7.7m | 9.8m | 12.2m | |
| *FTTC and FTTP |
Change in underlying revenue
Underlying revenue reflects the underlying performance of the group that will contribute to long-term sustainable growth. We exclude the impact of specific items, foreign exchange movements, acquisitions and disposals.
Customer service
Right First Time is our main measure of customer service. It tracks how often we keep our promises to customers. This could be keeping to appointment times, completing orders in the defined timeframe or fixing faults within an agreed period. As well as improving service and the customer experience, keeping our promises should reduce the work required to fix mistakes, and so reduce our costs.
Adjusted earnings per share
Adjusted earnings per share is the adjusted profit after tax attributable to shareholders excluding the impact of specific items, divided by the weighted average number of issued shares. This makes it a comparable and consistent way of measuring our business performance over time.
Normalised free cash flow
Normalised free cash flow is free cash flow (net cash inflow from operating activities after capital expenditure) after net interest paid, before pension deficit payments (including the cash tax benefit of pension deficit payments) and specific items.
For more information on our financial results visit our Investor section.
For more information on our social and environmental performance visit our Digital impact and sustainability section.
EBITDA: Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation.
1 Before specific items.
2 Excludes specific items, foreign exchange movements and disposals and is calculated as though EE had been part of the group from 1 April 2015.
3 Before purchases of telecommunications licences.
4 Before specific items, purchases of telecommunications licences, pension deficit payments and the cash tax benefit of pension deficit payments.
