May 14 (Bloomberg) -- BT Group Plc, the U.K.’s largest phone company, lowered its dividend after posting a fourth- quarter loss on costs to overhaul the global services division and said a further 15,000 jobs will be cut this year.

BT’s final dividend of 1.1 pence reduces the annual payout to 6.5 pence from 15.8 pence a year earlier. The net loss was 977 million pounds ($1.48 billion) in the three months through March, compared with a profit of 426 million pounds a year earlier, London-based BT said in a statement today. BT predicts sales will fall 4 percent to 5 percent this year.

The company plans to eliminate a “similar” number of jobs in the year through March 2010 as in the previous year, which will bring cuts to 30,000 over two years, Chief Financial Officer Tony Chanmugam said in a Bloomberg Television interview today. BT fell 6.4 percent in London trading.

This is the third time in less than eight months that BT has said the global services unit hurt overall performance, while other divisions performed well. BT booked a 1.3 billion- pound charge at the unit, which sells security, telephone and Internet services to international companies including Procter & Gamble Co. The unit is central to Chief Executive Officer Ian Livingston’s efforts to counter falling wholesale U.K. revenue.

“The most notable surprise is a terrible piece of guidance that revenue will be down 4 percent to 5 percent,” Darren Ward, an analyst at Liberum Capital in London, said in a note today. He said “comforting” news about cost cuts was “more than offset by worries about the ongoing pension issue and terrible top-line guidance.”

‘Unacceptable Performance’

The cuts to be made this year represent about 10 percent of BT’s current workforce of 147,000. About a third of the cuts will be at the global services unit, Livingston said. Chanmugam said he doesn’t anticipate more charges for the unit, adding that the prediction is based on the current economic climate.

“Three out of four of BT’s lines of business have performed well in spite of fierce competition and the global economic downturn,” Livingston said in the statement. “However this achievement has been overshadowed by the unacceptable performance of BT Global Services and the resulting charges.”

The global services unit accounts for about 40 percent of BT’s total revenue, which rose 0.9 percent to 5.47 billion pounds in the fourth quarter.

BT fell 6 pence to 88.4 pence. The stock has lost 35 percent this year.

Sales Forecast

BT predicts sales will fall this year, “reflecting a continuation of the trends seen in the fourth quarter, the impact of lower mobile termination rates, together with the impact of refocusing BT Global Services.”

The company said it aims to cut capital expenditure and costs by “well over” 1 billion pounds this fiscal year.

Earnings per share will be affected by the pension obligations, the company said. BT said it agreed to pay 525 million pounds into its pension plan in each of the next three fiscal years.

BT’s pension fund had a deficit of 2.9 billion pounds at the end of March 31, compared with a surplus of 2 billion pounds a year earlier, after the slide in equity markets and property prices.

Chanmugam said BT will be able to increase the dividend again in future, without giving details. Livingston said he doesn’t expect BT to become less attractive for investors as a result of the dividend cut as other companies are also reducing payments.

To contact the reporter on this story: Simon Thiel in London at sthiel1@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: May 14, 2009 13:02 EDT