T-Online International, the online company of German telecommunication company Deutsche Telekom, reports a loss over 2002 of EUR 459.3 million. Compared to a loss of EUR 797 million in 2001. The company increased despite what it calls "the the generally grim economic climate in 2002" its customer base across Europe by 15% to 12.2 million. In France alone the number of customers went up by 253,000 to 1.03 million. T-Online's EBITDA was EUR 103,5 million. Sales rose 39% to EUR 1.58 billion from EUR 1.14 billion in 2001. T-Online said at a press conference at Cebit that almost half the loss came from a lowering in the valuation of Comdirect, the online stock trading service in which T-Online holds a stake. For that reason T-Online predicts that next year core earnings could double.
