By Aled Herbert, 1 August 2001 09:40
NEWS Shares in Deutsche Telecom fell yesterday following concerns that the German telco was failing to reduce its debt mountain. The news overshadowed DT results published yesterday which were in line with analysts' expectations. DT had a net debt of E68.8bn (£42.2bn) for the period ending 30 June, compared with E57.1bn (£35.1bn) at the end of March 2001. The increase in debt was partly attributable to the E8.3bn (£5.1bn) acquisition of VoiceStream in June. According to the Financial Times, the German telco had previously managed to convince investors and shareholders it was on the path to reducing its debt mountain. Analysts said investors may now begin to doubt whether the company can meet its target of raising E11bn (£6.8bn) to E14bn (£8.6bn) by the end of the year. The telco's sales for the quarter were up 17.4 per cent from the same period last year to E22.6bn (£13.9bn). Profits before goodwill, amortisation and UMTS costs were E600m (£369m) - up 20 per cent from 12 months ago. The company also announced it was shelving plans to float part of its T-Mobile subsidiary. Analysts had expected the company to float around September 2001.
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