Marconi, the beleaguered UK telecoms equipment provider, has been tipped as a likely takeover target after it failed to convince investors with a revised debt-reduction plan and its share price fell to a new low.

Both investors and analysts remain unconvinced by Marconi's pledge to reduce its net debt outstanding from £4.4bn (€7.19bn) to between £2.7bn and £3.2bn by March 2002. At the same time Marconi set aside £500m against a fall in the value of its inventory, wrote down goodwill associated with acquisitions to the tune of £3.5bn, and recorded an operating loss for the first half of the year. Shares in Marconi continued to fall, hitting a low of 41.5p on Wednesday, a fall of nearly 95% since the beginning of the year.