Most of Europe had learnt to live with terrorism for the past 30 years. The pictures were extraordinary; one couldn’t take one’s eyes off them. They were followed by a wave of sound, most of which was a sort of sentimental hysteria. Neither option would be cheap and a bid for the business would almost certainly saddle France Telecom with several more billions of euros of debt.For now, France Telecom remains locked in a bitter battle with MobilCom’s founder, Gerhard Schmid, who controls about 50 per cent of the equity. But that is, by no means, the only option on the table.Others reckon France Telecom could negotiate a loan from the French government or a loan backed by the French government. Analysts at Goldman Sachs point out that if France Telecom sold its stake in Orange down to about the 51 per cent level, then it could raise about €7.5bn, alleviating but not solving its funding issues.The main problem with that plan is that there seems no obvious buyer for the shares. In addition, such a shift in strategy would almost certainly only come from fresh blood.”Rationally, they [France Telecom] have to look at eating into their crown jewels and Orange is certainly one way to do that.

But that, in my opinion, would be contingent on management change,” one analyst said.As for MobilCom, France Telecom must decide whether to buy the remaining shares in the company or to walk away and let it go bankrupt. They’ve got a huge amount of debt, which they need to cut, and heads will almost certainly roll,” one City source said.If there is a positive in the current crisis, it is that the French government, which owns 55.5 per cent of France Telecom, looks almost certain to back the company. And, of course, there has been a complete management overhaul at the UK telecoms giant.And, more recently, Deutsche Telekom, saddled with a similar amount of debt to the French group, parted company with its chief executive Dr Ron Sommer.”It [the situation at France Telecom] is just like BT. Eight months of extremely acrimonious talks have, so far, failed to produce a solution.And then, the real highlight of the meeting of course, will be the thorny issue of who should take the rap for the problems – something that will have Mr Bon and Mr Vinciguerra squirming in their chairs.If the story sounds familiar it is because the parallels with BT, its UK counterpart, are uncanny. Just over a year ago, BT was forced to carry out a £6bn rights issue and sell off assets to cut a near £30bn debt pile. The real entertainment will come when the directors discuss how to fix France Telecom’s balance sheet and get debt down to a more manageable level.

Its current estimated debt far exceeds its €12.2bn market value.There will be even more fun and games when it comes to discussing what to do with the loss-making German telecoms company MobilCom, in which it has a 28.5 per cent stake. The fuel rod stops with him and he will have to go.m.harrison independent.co.uk. With an estimated €70bn (£44bn) debt mountain, it was only a matter of time before France Telecom and its financial problems exploded centre stage. But the question of who would be interested in the assets unless the Government relieved them of British Energy’s £14bn in undiscounted liabilities was conveniently sidestepped.The new management is enthusiastically blaming the old for overpaying for coal-fired capacity and failing to build and then hang on to a retail supply business to act as a natural hedge against falling generator prices. The best gloss British Energy’s spokesman could put on yesterday’s relisting of the shares was that it at least gave investors a chance to trade out of the stock Those who could find a buyer did so in their droves.

Not, however, at the 750p the shares fetched three years ago, nor even the 80p they were worth last Thursday but at 28p if they were lucky and 13p if they were not.The speed with which British Energy has gone from being a dull old utility with secure cash flows and a safe dividend to a basket case which cannot even pay the wages without an immediate government loan is startling by any standards.British Energy has already as good as told its 230,000-strong army of small investors that there will nothing left for them even if it survives a long-term restructuring.Patricia Hewitt, who has reluctantly stuck her finger in the nuclear dyke, raised the prospect of the company entering administration herself yesterday. The new chief executive has his (or her) work cut out.Nuclear goes criticalIt takes a certain desperate sense of humour to work in the nuclear industry these days. They might tell him a few home truths.One is that Mothercare’s large out-of-town stores of which the company seems so proud are still a major disappointment and have clearly been designed by someone who has never gone shopping with children. The shopping experience is actually worse than when Mothercare bought out Children’s World from Boots a few years back.