Malawi fixed-line operator axes 389 workers

BLANTYRE, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Malawi Telecommunications Limited (MTL), a unit of Germany's Deutsche Telekom, has shed 389 jobs under a restructuring exercise, a local newspaper reported on Thursday.

Horst Holzhaeuser, MTL's chief executive officer, told the Nation that the company was "overstaffed" and needed to trim its 2,300-strong workforce to operate efficiently.

"Currently we are catering for about 70,000 customers, and a labour force of 2,300 people was just too much for a company of our size," Holzhaeuser was quoted as saying.

Formerly a state-owned company, MTL was partially privatized in February 2006 to the Telecom Holdings Limited consortium comprising Malawi's London-listed global depositary receipt Press Corporation Limited (PCL) as majority shareholder and Deutsche Telekom as technical partner.

The Malawi government still holds 20 percent of MTL, which it intends to offer to the public on the Malawi Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Frank Phiri, editing by Will Waterman)