BT shares slumped this morning after the telecoms group announced a surprise profit warning in a trading update.
Shares in BT fell 21 per cent by 09:36 GMT after the group said earnings will be below expectations for the second quarter, due to a "disappointing" performance from the global services division.
All other divisions produced results in line with or ahead of expectations, the company said.
According to BT, the fall is due to slower than anticipated delivery of efficiency savings and the continued decline in higher margin UK business.
The head of the unit, François Barrault, resigned as a result of the decline and has been replaced by Hanif Lalani, currently group finance director.
Full-year results will also be affected and BT said it now expects profits to decline in 2008 compared to last year, rather than grow as formerly predicted.
Ian Livingston, chief executive of BT, said: "BT is performing in line with or ahead of expectations in all but one of its divisions, so the results in BT global services are particularly disappointing."
BT global services provides networked IT services for customers in more than 170 countries.
The group has proposed an interim dividend of 5.4p per share.
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