DoCoMo writes down AT&T Wireless, other investments

Japanese wireless giant NTT DoCoMo today announced that it is writing down the value of its overseas investments by approximately $4.6 billion dollars.

The bulk of that write down comes from DoCoMo’s 16% stake in AT&T Wireless, which it acquired in late 2000 for about $9.8 billion dollars. DoCoMo is taking an impairment charge of approximately $2.8 billion on that investment.

The company also is taking charges on its holdings in KPN Mobile and Hutchison 3G UK Holdings. All three write downs will appear on DoCoMo’s report for the first half of the fiscal year ending March 2003.

The announcement from DoCoMo did not include a rationale for the write downs, but the current depressed state of the worldwide communications market is almost certainly to blame.

A spokesman for AT&T Wireless declined to comment on the write down. However, Hutchison Whampoa, the majority stakeholder in Hutchison 3G UK Holdings, issued a statement disagreeing with DoCoMo’s action.

“That decision,” Whampoa said, “has been made in response to fluctuations in sentiment in the international capital markets rather than any change in underlying business fundamentals supporting the 3G business which we have built in the UK.”