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BT Group PLC on Thursday said it has hired the finance chief of rival mobile network provider Virgin Media O2 to be its next chief financial officer, as telecommunications firm reported a slight decline in first quarter revenue and profit.
BT shares were up 6.6% to 212.58 pence early Thursday in London, the fourth best performer in the FTSE 100 index.
Virgin Media 02 is a subsidiary of the US’s Liberty Global Ltd and competes with the BT/EE mobile network in the UK.
Newbury, Berkshire-based BT said Virgin Media O2 CFO Patricia Cobian will replace Simon Lowth as BT’s CFO, joining in the summer of 2026. Lowth has been CFO for nine years, and Lowth will retire following a handover to Cobian. BT will announce the exact date of Cobain’s arrival ‘in due course’.
‘I am thrilled that Patricia is going to be joining BT next year,’ said Chief Executive Officer Allison Kirkby. ‘Her leadership, deep industry experience and knowledge will be invaluable, as we continue our once-in-a-generation upgrade of the UK’s digital infrastructure and accelerate BT’s modernisation.’
BT also reported pretax profit of £468 million in its first quarter that ended June 30, down 10% on-year as a result of an increase in net finance costs, as well as depreciation and amortisation.
Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation was £2.05 billion down 0.5% from £2.06 billion a year before.
Adjusted revenue for the three-month period was down 3.4% to £4.88 billion from £5.05 billion due to ‘weaker handset sales in Consumer and continued challenging international trading’, the company said.
‘BT has had a solid start to the year, with our full fibre broadband now reaching more than 19 million homes and businesses and our 5G network available to over 87% of the UK population,’ CEO Kirkby said.
‘We’re seeing strong customer demand for our next-generation broadband and mobile connectivity across all our brands, with record Openreach fibre take-up again this quarter. And we’re delivering on our transformation, as we radically simplify our business while improving customer experience.’
BT maintained its existing guidance for all of financial 2026.
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