Cable & Wireless posts £94m loss after exceptional charges

The figure for the year to March 31 was caused by 210m of exceptional charges, including 14m relating to the deficit in its defined benefit pension scheme.

Stripping out the one-off items, underlying earnings jumped 32 per cent to 431m, and represented a year of progress, according to C&W.

Chief executive Jim Marsh said market conditions were improving and that the company's core business segments were delivering "good momentum".

The division serving large enterprise customers continued to grow market share after contract wins included a 207m deal with National Grid to deliver a telecoms network to support electricity transmission over the next 15 years.

C&W, which employs 6,500 people, also extended its contract with Tesco to support the growth of the supermarket group's consumer broadband operation in the UK.

Revenues from the UK enterprise division increased 1 per cent, to 837,, while in the UK public sector channel the figure was 6 per cent higher despite the squeeze on government spending.

The UK carrier division, which works on behalf of the major fixed-line carriers and mobile operators, suffered in the economic downturn after a 5 per cent drop in revenues, to 349m. C &W said it carried around 70 per cent of all calls made from mobiles to UK geographic numbers.

Shares in the company jumped 5 per cent as analysts welcomed the "solid" results.

Royal Bank of Scotland analyst Chris Alliott said: "With these results, we believe a number of the market's concerns should start to be resolved."