STATE LOSES MAJORITY IN DEUTSCHE TELEKOM

Four and a half years after the beginning of the privatisation process, the German state is set to lose its majority stake in Deutsche Telekom. After the Bonn-based company’s take over of US-based mobile phone firm VoiceStream, the German state, together with state-owned credit institute Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau, will only own 45 per cent of the shares, a spokesman of Germany’s Federal Ministry of Finance said in Berlin. Up until now the state held a 58 per cent stake in the telco.