Deutsche Telekom Loss Widens to $1.66 Billion

Deutsche Telekom reported a wider-than-expected loss in the first quarter as earnings fell in Germany and as Europe’s largest telecommunications company wrote down the value of investments in other countries.

The company’s sixth consecutive loss widened to $1.66 billion from a loss of $331.3 million a year earlier. Analysts were expecting a loss of $1.14 billion.

“This is the big surprise of the earnings season,” said Jeffrey Currington, who helps manage about $110 billion for Pictet & Cie in London. Traditional phone service “was supposed to be the defensive side of these companies and that has proved not to be the case.”

The Bonn-based company’s shares fell as much as 8% in Europe, valuing the company at $47.1 billion. The shares have fallen 88% from a high reached in March 2000.

Chief Financial Officer Karl-Gerhard Eick said the company “feels comfortable with” operating profit forecasts of $14.7 billion to $15.6billion this year as the company cuts costs and raises prices.