Deutsche Bundespost Telekom yesterday cleared the decks for its long-winded transformation into a commercial company, taking a hit equivalent to $2,681m against its 1993 figures to write down assets and to reflect changes in value-added tax regulations. That swept the German state phone monopoly to a $1,767m net loss, up from a loss last time of $771m; turnover rose 9.2% at $35,950m, and operating profit was up 8.6% at $4,630m. The writedown on assets was caused by the transformation of its accounting practices to conform with standard corporate accounting procedures in Germany. In 1990, the first year after its transformation to a state-owned company from a government ministry, it was required to write down assets by $6,100m, a figure now revised upwards to $6,700m, of which $2,130m was taken this time. Taxes and transfer of profits to the government to compensate for losses at its post and banking service sister agencies totalled $3,717m, up from $3,351m in 1992. The company’s supervisory board also approved it taking a stake in Societe Europeenne des Satellites SA of Luxembourg, which operates the Astra satellite television network. Telekom sees this as an important step in linking its telephone and broadband cable networks with satellite services, and it will take a 25% stake in company.
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