Deutsche Telkom Won't Be Pressured into Putting T-Mobil on the Market

Despite massive threats from ratings agencies to lower the credit rating of Deutsche Telekom because of its high debts, Telekom does not want to be pressured into putting T-Mobil, its mobile phone subsidiary, on the stock market. Ron Sommer, the head of the Telekom group, told the news magazine "Der Spiegel" that a credit downgrade would cost Deutsche Telekom "around 90 million euro per year." However, Sommer said, "No one would like to have to pay this amount, but an unsuccessful market entrance would cost much more." Telekom will therefore examine its general conditions in the fourth quarter and then decide if the time is right for the mobile phone subsidiary to go public. At the Deutsche Telekom general meeting on Tuesday in Cologne, which around 10,000 shareholders are expected to attend, the head of Telekom does not foresee a public tribunal due to the extremely weak stock performance. According to Sommer, Telekom's real estate affair and the massive devaluation of 3.9 billion German marks on the balance sheet has not had an effect on the performance of the stock and has also not led to a loss of confidence amongst investors.