The transformation of Cable & Wireless into a focused, go-getter under the influence of its new American Chief executive Richard H Brown, is set to continue with another $1bn worth of disposals in non C&W controlled businesses scheduled over the coming year. Presenting the group’s numbers at the half year stage, Brown called the results impressive, with net profits for the six months to September 30 up by 123% at 798m pounds while revenues rose by 14.8% to 3.9bn pounds. But the figures include a pair of exceptional items which need to be stripped out. There is a one-off charge of 200m pounds for the reorganization of subsidiary Cable & Wireless Communications Plc, formed earlier in the year from the four way merger between a group of the UK’s bigger cable operators. There is also the exceptional gain of 519m pounds from the sale a 5.4% stake in C&W’s biggest subsidiary, Hongkong Telecom to the Chinese. Before tax and exceptionals, profits rose 9% to 797m pounds. Brown had hinted at the time of his Hong Kong Telecom sell down that this would be C&W’s ticket to ride into China’s exploding telecommunications market. But the deal was not reciprocated by the Chinese authorities and he found himself shut out of the recent sale in Hong Kong of China Telecom. Brown, however, remains optimistic about his group’s opportunities to gain a foothold in China. Mobile communications was the fastest growing area of business in the quarter. The company is adding 50,000 subscribers a week to its worldwide mobile networks, with the group’s One2One network professing to have captured more customers in the UK between July and September than anybody else. The board has proposed an interim dividend up 10% at 3.75 pence. This will be paid as a FID or Foreign Income Dividend, allowing C&W to reclaim some of its growing mountain of surplus Advance Corporation Tax.
