The revelation of improper accounting practices, sales, purchase, factoring and leasing transactions at BT’s Italian business has seen the telecoms and services giant’s pre-tax profit for the third quarter to 31 December plummet by 37% year-on-year to £526m.
News of the scale of the scandal – which has been under investigation by forensic auditors at KPMG since the summer of 2016 – broke on 24 January 2017 , when BT revealed it was trebling an existing write-down on the Italian unit to £530m.
BT’s shares lost more than 20% of their value as a result of the news, which has also cost Corrado Sciolla, the head of its European operations, his job.
“The good progress we’re making across most of the business has unfortunately been overshadowed by the results of our investigation into our Italian operations and our outlook,” said BT chief executive Gavin Patterson.
