Deutsche Telekom to sell 51% of towers business

LONDON/BERLIN, July 14 (Reuters) – Deutsche Telekom (DTEGn.DE) has agreed to market 51% of its towers enterprise to a consortium of Canada’s Brookfield and U.S. personal fairness business DigitalBridge after they built a surprise past-minute bid that valued the device at 17.5 billion euros ($17.5 billion).

Brookfield (BAMa.TO) experienced initially served to fund a binding bid by Spanish telecoms business Cellnex (CLNX.MC), in advance of Cellnex withdrew on Wednesday. go through extra

The German telecoms giant will preserve the remaining 49% stake of the GD Towers small business, with the offer envisioned to near towards the stop of the yr.

Proceeds of 10.7 billion euros will help Deutsche Telekom cut personal debt, whilst it functions in the direction of obtaining a bulk share in its T-Cell U.S. subsidiary.

“We crystalise the value of our tower property, thereby making value for our shareholders,” Deutsche Telekom CEO Tim Höttges said.

Brookfield and DigitalBridge (DBRG.N) “have deep pockets for the coming steps,” Höttges extra, indicating their position in fostering marketplace consolidation throughout a media briefing.

Deutsche Telekom shares ended up down 1.6% at 1102 GMT.

The offer is Germany’s biggest this yr and Europe’s 2nd largest, soon after the Benetton spouse and children and U.S. fund Blackstone’s (BX.N) 58 billion euro takeover of Italian infrastructure team Atlantia (ATL.MI). read through much more

The towers sale kicked off in March, drawing interest from heavyweight monetary traders together with U.S. buyout fund KKR (KKR.N) which teamed up with Worldwide Infrastructure Associates (GIP) and Stonepeak on a rival bid. study far more

Quite a few telecoms corporations have carved out towers corporations, or launched joint ventures with other organizations, to increase dollars although retaining a stake in operations.

Goldman Sachs recommended Deutsche Telekom on the sale, even though Perella Weinberg Associates, Evercore and Barclays labored with DigitalBridge together with regulation firms Allen & Overy and Morgan Lewis.

With close to 800 staff, GD Towers operates radio towers at additional than 40,000 destinations in Germany and Austria. In 2021, the organization reached profits of close to 1.1 billion euros.

Vodafone’s Frankfurt-mentioned towers organization Vantage Towers (VTWRn.DE) and American Tower (AMT.N) experienced thought of bids before in the auction system. read through a lot more

“The partnership getting formed today is about developing the subsequent era digital infrastructure winner of Europe,” claimed DigitalBridge CEO Marc Ganzi.

The infrastructure expense firm manages $47 billion of assets targeted on digital infrastructure this kind of as wireless towers, data facilities and fiber networks.

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Reporting by Emma-Victoria Farr in London and Matthias Inverardi in Duesseldorf
Composing by Rachel Much more in Berlin Modifying by Jacqueline Wong and Mark Potter

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