The German news outlet Handelsblatt is reporting that Deutsche Telekom wants to take a majority ownership in T-Mobile US. It predicts that DT CEO Timothy Hoettges will present his plan for this on Thursday at DT's Capital Markets Day.
Currently, DT has a 43.2% stake in T-Mobile US, and the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank owns an 8.5% share in T-Mobile US. The remaining 48.3% of shares are held by public shareholders.* According to Recon Analytics analyst Roger Entner, DT has voting control over SoftBank’s shares in T-Mobile US. This was agreed to as part of the deal for T-Mobile to buy Sprint.
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According to the German news outlet, DT is heavily in debt, so it will be a challenge for Hoettges to convince his board of directors to acquire more shares in T-Mobile. And apparently, he'll also have to work diplomacy with the German government and labor representatives who don't want the company's European operations to be neglected, taking a back-seat to the U.S. business.
Entner said today that for DT the idea “makes a lot of sense because T-Mobile US is the growth engine right now. T-Mobile US is by far the fastest growing part of DT."
He said the first step would be for DT to strike an agreement with SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son.
According to T-Mobile's investor relations site, T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert, CFO Peter Osvaldik and President of Technology Neville Ray will present at the Deutsche Telekom Capital Markets Day this week.
Ray was previously scheduled to present at a UBS conference yesterday. But the presentation was cancelled.
*Correction. After publication of this story, T-Mobile reached out with the precise breakdown of percentage share ownership. And the story has been updated.