A man walks past the logo of Deutsche Telekom AG at the headquarters of German telecom giant in Bonn.
BERLIN Reuters : Deutsche Telekom struck a share-swap deal with Softbank to sell its stake in U.S. unit T-Mobile and increase its Dutch position in a major restructuring of interests that strengthens the German group's transatlantic focus.
As a result of the two deals announced on Tuesday, Deutsche Telekom will raise its stake in T-Mobile US by 5.3% to 48.4%, bringing CEO Tim Hoettges closer to his goal of securing direct majority control over the U.S. telecoms operator.
Softbank will in return receive a 4.5% stake in Deutsche Telekom, with a Direct Shareholding relationship after Softbank sold its U.S. Sprint unit to T-Mobile in a deal that closed in early 2020.
In a separate deal, Deutsche Telekom sold its Dutch unit T-Mobile Netherlands to a consortium of private equity houses Apax and Warburg Pincus for 5.1 billion euros $6.05 billion Deutsche Telekom acquired control of the Dutch business from Sweden Tele 2 in 2018 but never considered the unit, which added distant third market leaders KPN and Vodafone Ziggo as a core asset.
Deutsche Telekom will invest some of its 3.8 billion euros in earnings from the Dutch deal to raise its stake in T-Mobile US. Sweden Tele 2, which had bought T-Mobile Niederlande a 25% stake in Sweden, sold out as well.