LONDON (Bloomberg) — Cable & Wireless Plc, the UK’s second-biggest phone company, will probably say today that fiscal first-half profit fell as costs to restructure the company dragged down results and profit margins shrank.Net income probably fell 76 percent to $22 million ($41.7 million) from $92 million a year earlier, the median estimate of seven analysts in a Bloomberg survey. Per-share profit fell to 1.1 pence in the period that ended September 30 from 3.8 pence, according to the median of six estimates.

Cable & Wireless, which said in February it would cut as many as 3,000 jobs, has been hurt by declining sales of traditional voice phone service.

To boost sales, the Bracknell, England-based company bought phone-services provider Energis Plc last year for $631 million and has turned its focus on overseas growth and high-margin clients.

“By repositioning the customer base and simultaneously cutting cost we can see a route to achieving targets for the UK,” Citigroup analyst Michael Williams wrote in an October 16 report.

“The company’s new restructuring plan appears viable.”

Cable & Wireless’s sales probably rose 14 percent to $1.69 billion, the median estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Bloomberg, from $1.481 billion a year earlier.

Williams predicts traditional voice and land-line phone service sales dropped between 15 percent and 20 percent in the six months, while broadband and other Internet service sales rose 20 percent.

The company will post a one-time expense of 126 million pounds in the six months, Williams wrote. Operating profit margin will shrink to 12 percent in the six months from 14 percent a year ago, he said.

“There’s a cost for redundancies and the integration of Energis,” said Christian Maher, an analyst at Investec Securities, who rates Cable & Wireless “buy.”

Maher said some of the profit decline will come from implementing a plan to end business with smaller and less profitable customers.

Depreciation and interest expenses may hurt results as well, Maher said.

Cable & Wireless cut its UK workforce by about half so the company could focus on its larger, more profitable customers. The company declined to disclose the cost of the job cuts or the restructuring.

As part of the plan to boost sales and profit growth, Cable & Wireless said in September that it would expand overseas through acquisitions. In the UK, traditional voice service sales have slowed.

Cable & Wireless may purchase companies with annual sales of as much as $300 million, the company said at the time, pointing to its $205 million July offer to buy rival KeyTech Ltd. in Bermuda.

KeyTech has said the offer is too low and the Department of Telecommunications has said it would oppose the bid, saying it would create a near-monopoly.

Shares of Cable & Wireless rose 1.5 pence, or one percent, to 148 pence in London yesterday. Before yesterday, the stock had risen 24 percent this year.