Edging closer to regaining its status as majority shareholder
Deutsche Telekom has bought more of its stake back in US mobile operator T-Mobile, after paying the Softbank Group $2.4 billion.
The Bonn-based German flagship now holds 48.4% of the company, edging ever closer to its ambition to be the majority shareholder. In this most recent transaction it bought 21.2 million shares at an average price of $113 (€104) per T-Mobile share, according to a statement on Wednesday.
The company is using part of the €4 billion (roughly) it received from sale of T-Mobile Netherlands, announced in September 2021 and recently completed, to purchase the stake.
SoftBank struck a complex deal with Deutsche Telekom to sell part of its stake in T-Mobile. The Japanese company agreed to swap about 45 million T-Mobile US shares for a 4.5% stake in Deutsche Telekom AG. The deal had allowed SoftBank to borrow against its T-Mobile stake as long as Deutsche Telekom gets to vote the shares pledged as collateral.