BT regional operations grow 34% to US$269mn in FY08 - Regional
BT regional operations grow 34% to US$269mn in FY08 - Regional
Sunday, July 6, 2008
(BNamericas.com) - UK telco British Telecom (NYSE: BT) saw its Latin American revenues grow 34% to US$269mn in fiscal year 2008, ending March 31, compared to fiscal 2007, the company said in a statement.
"The results we have achieved for Latin America indicate that the BT regional operations grew three times above the ICT market's average which, according to IDC, has grown 11%. We have grown 34%. For the next years we expect to continue growing above the market average," BT Global Services' Latin America VP João Macias told BNamericas.
This is the first time BT has broken down its results per region with the aim of demonstrating the relevance of several regions in the company's global context.
"We realized local results seemed to be a bit diffuse in the global results and it was not possible to distinguish the influence or capacity each region has. The Latin American operation is a reference within the BT Group in terms of profitability," said Macias.
In FY08, BT Group saw global revenues of 20.7bn pounds (US$41.1bn), including the results of US telecoms operator Comsat which BT acquired in June 2007.
"The Comsat acquisition is extremely relevant to our presence in the region. In the first place because the company complements [our operations] in terms of knowledge of the local markets," said Macias. "[Before the acquisition] BT was focused on global accounts - large corporations which had branches of their services networks in Latin America."
According to the executive, Comsat focused on local operations in the countries where it had presence, enabling BT to gain local knowledge. Furthermore, Comsat contributed with highly skilled staff and the company's network allowed BT to expand and establish presence in several Latin American countries.
"We now have 180 points of presence in our infrastructure to collect and deliver services to our clients. The acquisition of Comsat brought 750 collaborators to BT in Latin America - these are well-trained and specialized personnel aware of the technology and services. This was a successful integration," said Macias.
Comsat's infrastructure enabled BT to improve as a business carrier in Latin America. Data centers that Comsat had in Brazil, Argentina and Colombia were integrated into BT operations.
The company expects to continue focusing on providing services for multinational companies, but now with its eyes also turned more towards large domestic companies and governmental segments. "The local economies are becoming increasingly global... With our experience, we want to help [Latin American] companies go beyond the regional boarders," said the executive.
With higher penetration, BT expects to broaden its products and services portfolio in Latin America, making available those solutions the company offers worldwide.
BT also considers Brazil as having nearshoring and offshoring capacity in the region, in which the company expects to make significant investments to locally support clients' operations on a global level.
"In some cases, we will also be able to support activities of the group from Brazil. We have a few examples of clients, such as Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG), which has already defined its operations centers will be based in Brazil for the company's global geography, except the US," said Macias.
REGIONAL CERTIFICATIONS AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
BT recently became Cisco's (Nasdaq: CSCO) first Certified TelePresence Connection Provider in Latin America. The Brazilian subsidiary obtained the Cisco Gold Certified Partner title, while the Argentina and Mexico units obtained the Cisco Silver Certified Partner. BT also expects to soon be certified in Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador and Colombia.
BT also plans to invest 500,000 pounds to sponsor Unicef's educational program in five Brazilian state capitals for training 10,000 low income adolescents....
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