Deutsche Telekom announces sharp drop in Q1 profits

BERLIN, May 6 : German telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom Friday announced a sharp drop in first-quarter net profits, mainly because of poor showings by its T-Mobile USA subsidiary, which it is selling. Net profits were down 37.4 per cent on the same period last year at 480 million euros ($699 million), well below the 677 million euros forecast by analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires. Adjusted Ebitda was down 8.4 per cent at 4.48 billion euros, in line with expectations, while turnover slipped 7.7 per cent to 14.6 billion euros. In the United States, where Deutsche Telekom is in the process of selling T-Mobile USA, results were affected by a drop in customers, the company said in a statement. "The negative development in results was largely due to higher market investment and network costs," it added. Deutsche Telekom has announced the sale of T-Mobile USA to AT&T for $39 billion, but the deal still needs the green light from US authorities. -AFP