BT Group PLC (LSE:BT.A) will see strong growth at Openreach, according to analysts at Berenberg, who caution that stiff competition in the longer term will see the unit’s revenue stagnate in the second half of the decade.
The European bank in a note, following financial statements released on Friday, highlighted that it values BT at around £20bn.
“We believe that Openreach will deliver strong growth in the coming years, as a result of its investment in the rollout of fibre-to-the[1]premises (FTTP) to 25m locations by 2026, up from 5.2m today,” Berenberg analyst Carl Murdock-Smith said.
“However, believing that Openreach will face increasingly stiff competition over the long term from Virgin Media (NASDAQ:VMED) O2 and other alternative networks, we forecast for Openreach’s revenue and EBITDA growth to stagnate in the second half of the decade.”
Berenberg rates BT as a ‘hold’, with a 175p price target – against a prevailing market price of 174.4p.