This article is more than 1 year old

Deutsche Telekom still losing money

But more slowly than before

T-Mobile's parent Deutsche Telekom lost €3m in the last quarter of 2009, which isn't too bad considering the company lost €730m during the same part of 2008.

For the whole of 2009, the company managed to increase sales by 4.8 per cent, to €64.6bn, though the net profit on those sales was down by 76 per cent to €353m. The company reckons it's now saving €5.9bn a year thanks to its ongoing cost reduction efforts.

"After a bumpy start, we rounded 2009 off with good results" says the canned statement from CEO René Obermann. "Cost discipline was key to getting through economically challenging times."

T-Mobile UK wasn't much help in that, as the company notes that it was the only mobile division in Europe which failed to maintain market position or improve margins. But the forthcoming merger with Orange should sort that out.

Announcing the results the company said it would be paying back €3.4bn to shareholders each year for the next three years, guaranteeing a 70-euro cent dividend with the possibility of buying back more shares to achieve that target.

There results were just shy of what was expected, which explains the company's guaranteed dividends as it continues with plans to shave another €4.2 billion off annual running costs. ®

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