Thursday morning business bulletin

May 15 2008 By Andrew Mernin

Barclays today said first quarter profits were down on a year ago, as it revealed a further £1bn hit from credit turbulence.

The UK banking giant did not disclose the extent of the profits drop, but said trading in January and February had been broadly in line with a year earlier before tougher credit markets impacted its performance in March.

The trading update did not contain any comment on whether Barclays planned to follow Royal Bank of Scotland and Halifax Bank of Scotland and announce a cash call to shareholders in order to shore up its balance sheet.

BT chief executive Ben Verwaayen bowed out on a high note today after revealing a 3% rise in annual underlying profits to £5.78 bn.

Mr Verwaayen, who has been credited with reviving the telecoms group in his six years at the helm, said BT finished the year ``in style" with a strong fourth quarter, including at its division providing IT and telecoms services.

The 56-year-old Dutchman is due to make way for BT Retail boss Ian Livingston at the end of this month. However, his final set of results were well received in the City, with BT shares up 1% after fourth quarter revenues of £5.42bn came in ahead of market expectations. Around 42% of sales came from new wave revenues, such as broadband and IT services for major corporations.

The company said BT Retail remained the UK’s biggest retail broadband provider with a customer base of 4.4 million at the end of March.

Broadcaster ITV said its turnaround plan was on track today as it looked set to outperform the UK advertising market for the first time in eight years.

The group said its net ad revenues were up 2% in the first three months of this year. It predicted the key measure would be flat for the company’s first half, better than a 1% dip for the total market.

ITV also said its viewing share across its family of channels, which includes flagship ITV1, was up 1.6% at 23.4%.

Executive chairman Michael Grade, who joined the broadcaster at the end of 2006, said: ``ITV has made further progress in 2008 and the turnaround plan, outlined in September 2007, remains on track.

The pound at 9am was US$1.9484 compared to US$1.9446 at the previous close while the euro at 9am was £0.7974  compared to £0.7954 at the previous close.