Deutsche Telekom to sell towers stake for $17.5 bln

Brochures with the logo of Deutsche Telekom AG are pictured at the store in the headquarters of German telecommunications giant in Bonn, Germany, February 19, 2019. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay

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LONDON/BERLIN, July 14 (Reuters) – Deutsche Telekom (DTEGn.DE) has agreed to provide 51% of its towers small business to a consortium of Canada’s Brookfield and U.S. non-public equity agency DigitalBridge just after they placed a surprise 17.5 billion euros ($17.5 billion) bid in the auction’s last phases.

Brookfield (BAMa.TO) had at first designed a binding bid with Spanish telecoms firm Cellnex (CLNX.MC), in advance of Cellnex withdrew on Wednesday. read through much more

The German telecoms giant will preserve the remaining 49% stake and the offer is predicted to shut in direction of the close of this year. It will decrease Deutsche Telekom’s economic debt by 10.7 billion euros, the business said, as it performs in the direction of obtaining a bulk share in its T-Cellular U.S. subsidiary.

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“We crystalise the worth of our tower belongings, thus building worth for our shareholders,” Deutsche Telekom CEO Tim Höttges said.

“They have deep pockets for the coming measures,” he added, referring to Brookfield and DigitalBridge (DBRG.N).

The deal is Germany’s largest this year and Europe’s next most significant, following the Benetton loved ones and U.S. fund Blackstone’s (BX.N) 58 billion euro takeover of Italian infrastructure team Atlantia (ATL.MI). read through extra

The towers sale kicked off in March and a competing binding give arrived from a consortium led by KKR (KKR.N), backed by U.S. expenditure firms World-wide Infrastructure Partners (GIP) and Stonepeak. examine a lot more

Numerous telecoms companies have carved out towers enterprises, or introduced joint ventures with other businesses, to raise cash though retaining an curiosity in the operations.

Goldman Sachs advised Deutsche Telekom on the sale of its 40,600 masts. browse far more

Vodafone’s Frankfurt-detailed towers business enterprise Vantage Towers (VTWRn.DE) and American Tower (AMT.N) had reportedly regarded as bids earlier in the auction system.

“The partnership being fashioned now is about constructing the upcoming era digital infrastructure winner of Europe,” mentioned DigitalBridge CEO Marc Ganzi. The infrastructure financial investment organization manages $47 billion of property centered on digital infrastructure these types of as wireless towers, data centers and fiber networks.

($1 = .9981 euros)

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Reporting by Emma-Victoria Farr in London and Matthias Inverardi in Duesseldorf
Producing by Rachel More in Berlin Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Mark Potter

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