Frankfurt - Shares in Europe's biggest telecoms group Deutsche Telekom AG dropped more than 10 per cent Tuesday after it warned about a fall in profits this year as the global recession and intense market competition hit the company's earnings.

German-based Telekom said it expects adjusted 2009 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) to fall between 2 and 4 per cent. Its shares stood at 8.67 euros in early afternoon trading.

The downbeat forecast came despite Telekom saying first-quarter adjusted EBITDA rose around 3 per cent to 4.8 billion euros (6.20 billion dollars).

While Telekom's operations in its domestic German market came in slightly above expectations, the company warned that its business was being undercut in Britain and the US by the global economic slowdown and intense competition. (dpa)