Deutsche Lufthansa's chief financial officer has told analysts that some of their estimates for the German airline's 2010 results are too high, the company said on Friday, putting pressure on its shares. A Lufthansa spokeswoman stressed that Germany's flagship carrier had not given an outlook for 2010 but confirmed that CFO Stephan Gemkow had said at a lunch on Thursday that some analysts were being too optimistic.

Lufthansa shares fell as much as 5.6 percent and were down 4.5 percent at 11.89 euros by 1018 GMT, the leading decliners among German blue chips. "At a lunch presentation in Frankfurt yesterday CFO Gemkow guided down analysts. Whereas he is fine with estimates for 2009 the market expectations for 2010 are too high," a WestLB analyst had said in a note to clients.

According to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S estimates, the market on average expected Lufthansa to generate a 2010 operating profit of 478.8 million euros ($680.1 million), EBITDA of 2.02 billion euros and net income of 96.8 million. The average SmartEstimate at Thomson Reuters StarMine, which weights analyst forecasts according to their previous accuracy, saw 2010 operating profit at 453.8 million, 5.2 percent below the overall average.

Copyright Reuters, 2010