OREANDA-NEWS. A further increase in efficiency at T-Systems resulted in another improvement in profitability in the second quarter. The Market Unit - which is primarily responsible for external business with Deutsche Telekom's corporate customers - generated an adjusted EBIT margin of 2.9 percent in the second quarter. This is compared with 1.4 percent in the same quarter of 2012.

The industry environment remained difficult with ongoing price pressure, which contributed to a 2.3 percent decrease in revenue to EUR 1.9 billion at the Market Unit. Adjusted for sales of operations in France and Italy as well as currency effects, the Market Unit's revenue remained more or less unchanged. By contrast, at the Telekom IT unit - which handles the Group's internal IT business in Germany - revenue declined by 30 percent. This high rate is due to the postponement of an internal IT project.

Order entry increased by 3.1 percent year-on-year to EUR 2.0 billion in the second quarter. The biggest deals included an agreement with the Finnish industrial company Kone. For the first half of the year, new orders increased by 16.6 percent to EUR 4.1 billion compared to the first six months of 2012.