Shareholders in stricken telecoms firm Marconi could be left owning less than one per cent of the group following a rescue financial restructuring deal.

Investors have already suffered heavy losses after watching their shares dive from more than £12 at the height of the tech boom to just 3.2p this morning.

Two years ago the former FTSE-100 group was worth almost £35 billion but today it is valued at just £89 million.

The firm, which owes banks and bondholders £4 billion, is in the midst of negotiating a complex financial deal to resolve its debt problem.

In the next few days, it is expected to unveil a debt-for-equity swap deal, meaning banks and bondholders would take control but shareholders would lose out.

It was understood shareholders would not be able to vote on the package.

However, a stake offered to shareholders could be supplemented by warrants, exercisable if Marconi's value rebounded to a level allowing creditors to recoup losses.

Shareholders have paid heavily for Marconi's problems. The group, which was born out of GEC, built up its debts through a spending spree at the height of the tech boom but was hit hard when the downturn came.

For its last financial year, it reported a £5.7 billion loss after writing down the value of a number of these acquisitions.

To cut costs the group has slashed thousands of jobs in the UK.

Earlier this month it announced another 1,000 jobs are to go, mainly in Liverpool and Coventry.

Two years ago, the group employed about 15,000 staff in the UK. Now that figure will drop to around 7,000.

Following the restructuring deal, Marconi would keep about £500 million of an estimated cash pile of £1.4 billion for working capital purposes,.

Some cash would be returned to creditors and some kept as security against contracts.