Then, on Oct. 31, the company announced its disastrous third quarter figures.

The company said latest quarter figures included a gain of $2.8 million related to a tax credit.

The first quarter figures showed that problems remain in its key consumer electronics market, which used to account for about half the group's total revenue.

The early redemption will result in an extraordinary charge of about $9m after tax against second quarter figures.

The company said the latest quarter figures include results of two subsidiaries acquired after March 1986.

This reflected a drop of 2.8 percent from the second quarter figure of $5.98 billion.

Not many countries have updated their third quarter figures yet, apart from Britain.

And last month it prepared the market for grim third quarter figures.

However that changed yesterday when the company reported first quarter figures showing turnover off 7% at just over $13,000m.

Second quarter figures had to be revised upwards by more than one percentage point from the estimate of 10.3%.