HIGH-tech company Bookham Technology, which is tomorrow expected to report growing losses, is seeking the go-ahead from its investors to issue new share options, writes Maggie Hartford.

Andrew Fisher, of stockbroker Gerrard, said pre-tax losses for the quarter were expected to widen to £11.7m, from £6.4m a year earlier. He added: "Bookham's first-quarter figures are likely to reflect the ongoing difficulties of the optical components market."

The group, which is Oxfordshire's Business of the Year, has suffered from a marked downturn in demand for its basic optical transmitters and receivers, which are sold mainly to its key customer Nortel.

Bookham, which earlier this year axed 150 jobs, is one of several technology companies issuing new options to compensate employees for share options that have become worthless due to plummeting share prices. Its shares have fallen from a high of £54 in June to 320p last week. Its headquarters at Milton Park, near Abingdon, will lose 100 jobs, while a further 50 will go at a manufacturing base at Swindon.

The job losses came a month after Bookham, which beat more than 100 companies to the business of the year title, warned of a downturn in demand for its mini-DIL optical chips, which transmit and receive optical signals.

The firm created hundreds of new jobs after its stock market flotation took it into the FTSE 100. A fall in its share price last year saw it drop out of the index.

At its annual meeting on Thursday it will propose the issue of to up to six per cent of its equity as new share options.

In the US, it is a common practice to reprice employee options when the offer price is more than the current share price.