Telekom chief under pressure

DEUTSCHE Telekom chief executive Ron Sommer was under increased pressure to quit today after the German former monopoly posted worse-than-expected first-quarter losses - its sixth consecutive quarterly loss.

Profits at its core fixed-line domestic business T-Com tumbled to e694 (£418m) from e1.3bn, and the group made write-downs totalling e1bn, mainly on acquisitions and including a e200m write-down on the value of its stake in France Telecom.

Deutsche's net loss for the quarter was e1.8bn, up from e358m in the first quarter of 2001. Analysts had been expecting a a net loss of between e1.1bn and e1.4bn.

Revenues grew by 15% to e12.8bn and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation were 4% higher at e3.8bn. The group said it expected significant growth in revenue and a further increase in earnings for the rest of the year.

At next week's annual shareholder meeting Sommer is expected to come under pressure to explain how he will reduce the group's e67bn of debt, equivalent to 125% of its market value. As the shares fell a further 3% to e12.7 analysts are increasingly certain that he will have to make a big rights issue.

Korea's Samsung is the fastestgrowing mobile phones maker, knocking Germany's Siemens from third to fourth place in the first quarter of this year, according to research group Gartner Dataquest.