Swedish telecoms company Ericsson has announced a seventh straight quarter of losses, prompting 5,000 more job cuts and extra cost-savings.
Ericsson lost €380 million during the three months to end-June, as sales of mobile systems slumped.
The company has also moved to end uncertainty surrounding its €3.26 billion rights issue, by pricing the offer at a deeply discounted 0.409 cent per share and saying it would be fully underwritten by shareholders and banks.
The company's two main owners - Investor and Industrivärden - have undertaken to subscribe for €800 million of the rights issue. They represent 7.4 per cent of the share capital and 66.7 per cent of the votes in the company.
Chief executive Mr Kurt Hellstroem said "We continue to plan our operations to return to profit at some point in 2003.
"In light of our lowered market expectations for this year, we have intensified the cost reductions that we started last year and are substantially ahead of schedule."
He said Ericsson expects the market for mobile systems to fall by 15 per cent this year, compared with a 10 per cent fall predicted in its first quarter report.
"We now expect the mobile phone market to be flat to down slightly compared to last year's 390 million units. We had previously estimated the market to be 400-420 million this year."
AFP