COLOGNE, Germany-Deutsche Telekom chief Kai-Uwe Ricke sought to reassure the firm’s shareholders that debt reduction is high on his priority list at the company’s annual shareholders meeting. The executive also emphasized the company’s renewed focus on an open corporate and management culture.
Specific to the company’s mobile division, Ricke emphasized T-Mobile International’s focus on multimedia services under the t-zones brand and further development of the business customer market.
The meeting comes after Deutsche Telekom last week reported its first profitable quarter in nearly two years. The operator announced a net profit of $972 million in the first quarter, due in part to strong earnings from its T-Mobile subsidiary.
The company reconfirmed its target of reducing its net debt to three times the level of its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization by the end of 2003. The company said planned asset sales will generate about $7 million toward debt reduction and another $7 million will be generated from free cash flow. Deutsche Telekom also said it cut capital expenditures by around 30 percent in 2002 and will invest between $7.8 billion and $9 billion in capital expenditures for this year.
