Ron Sommer, former chief executive of Deutsche Telekom, denied that the German telecoms group eight years ago failed to inform investors in a share offer of its plans to buy US competitor Voicestream.

Appearing as a witness in a case against DT brought by over 16,000 disgruntled stock-buyers, Mr Sommer said the company was looking at various targets when it sold a third lot of shares to the public on June 19 2000.