Authority to purchase shares

The authority given at last year’s AGM of the company held on 19 July 2007 for BT to purchase in the market 827 million of its shares, representing 10% of the issued share capital, expires on 18 October 2008. Shareholders will be asked to give a similar authority at the AGM.
     During the 2008 financial year, 540 million shares of 5 pence each were purchased under this authority (6.4% of the share capital) for a consideration of £1,498 million, at an average price of £2.78 per share. For more details, see Share buy back. 250 million treasury shares have been cancelled and 53 million treasury shares have been transferred to meet BT’s obligations under our employee share plans. A further 51 million shares have been bought during the close period starting on 1 April 2008 so that on 14 May 2008 a total of 657 million shares were retained as treasury shares. All the shares were purchased in an on-market programme of buying back BT shares, started in November 2003, as part of our shareholder distribution strategy.

By order of the Board

Andrew Parker
Secretary
14 May 2008

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