Repeat & Correct: Brookfield, DigitalBridge to Buy Stake in Deutsche Telekom's Tower Business for About $6.64 Billion
14 Luglio 2022 - 11:27AM
Dow Jones News
A consortium of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners LP and
DigitalBridge Group Inc. agreed to buy a stake in Deutsche Telekom
AG's tower business for roughly 6.6 billion euros ($6.64 billion),
"Brookfield, DigitalBridge to Buy Stake in Deutsche Telekom's Tower
Business for $17.60B -- Update," at 0610 GMT, misstated the price
of the stake. The error also appeared in "Brookfield, DigitalBridge
to Buy Stake in Deutsche Telekom's Tower Business for $17.60 Bln,"
at 0537 GMT. The correct version follows:
By Mauro Orru
A consortium of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners LP and
DigitalBridge Group Inc. agreed to buy a stake in Deutsche Telekom
AG's tower business for roughly 6.6 billion euros ($6.64 billion),
raising their bet on a telecommunications sector that has seen a
flurry of deal making in recent years.
Germany's Deutsche Telekom on Thursday said it had agreed to
sell the consortium a 51% stake in GD Towers, its tower unit in
Germany and Austria, valuing the entire business at EUR17.5
billion. Deutsche Telekom expects cash proceeds of EUR10.7 billion,
including debt of EUR4.1 billion, from the deal.
The sale caps a yearlong effort to sell part of the business. GD
Towers operates more than 40,000 sites across Germany and Austria,
and will hand the consortium exposure to some 800 employees.
"This represents a great opportunity to invest in a highly
attractive tower portfolio, with highly contracted cash flows and
strong upside potential," Sam Pollock, managing partner at
Brookfield, said. Brookfield has roughly 200,000 telecom tower and
rooftop sites under management.
For Deutsche Telekom, the sale will give it more leeway to trim
a net debt pile that stood at EUR135.95 billion at the end of
March. The company said it expects a reduction in net debt,
including leases, of EUR6.5 billion. Closing of the deal is
expected toward the end of the year.
The German company will retain a 49% stake in the business as
part of the deal that also hands it significant minority protection
rights, including the right to appoint two of five members of the
shareholder committee. Deutsche Telekom also has the right to
regain control of the business should it wish to do so.
News of the deal with Brookfield and DigitalBridge comes after
reports that a KKR & Co.-led consortium including Stonepeak
Infrastructure Partners LP and Global Infrastructure Partners LLC
was close to signing an agreement with Deutsche Telekom.
For KKR, a deal would have marked its latest foray in the
European telecommunications market. KKR bought a stake in a
co-investment project with Telecom Italia SpA for EUR1.8 billion in
2020, and last year it had expressed interest in taking the company
private, though a deal hasn't materialized.
Spain's Cellnex Telecom SA confirmed it had pulled out of the
race, putting an end to speculation that it had made concessions to
secure a share of the business.
Write to Mauro Orru at mauro.orru@wsj.com; @MauroOrru94
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 14, 2022 05:12 ET (09:12 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Grafico Azioni Deutsche Telekom (XE:DTE)
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