Deutsche Bahn Sticks to 2006 IPO

Deutsche Bahn, the German state-owned rail operator, still wants to be ready to list on the stock exchange next year, despite doubts whether the company is financially fit enough for flotation, chairman Hartmut Mehdorn said on Wednesday. "We'll reach the threshold required to go to the capital markets in 2006," Mehdorn told the group's annual earnings news conference here. Deutsche Bahn had achieved the turnaround and posted a profit for the first time last year, Mehdorn said. This week's edition of WirtschaftWoche magazine quotes a report by investment bank Morgan Stanley saying that the German federal railways did not yet meet the criteria required to go public.