Deutsche Telekom (FWB:DTE) has no plans to reduce its stake in subsidiary T-Mobile US (NYSE:TMUS) according to the German giant’s CEO Tim Höttges. Speaking on the telco’s Q2 investor call, Höttges said it would keep its current holding in…
Deutsche Telekom (FWB:DTE) has no plans to reduce its stake in subsidiary T-Mobile US (NYSE:TMUS) according to the German giant’s CEO Tim Höttges.
Speaking on the telco’s Q2 investor call, Höttges said it would keep its current holding in T-Mobile US for the moment, although it is unclear how long this will continue to be the case.
He added that Deutsche Telekom had no plans for any big acquisitions in Europe.
Last year, Deutsche Telekom rebuffed a takeover offer for T-Mobile US from French telecoms maverick Xavier Niel, and prior to that, rival Sprint had prepared the ground for a takeover, before being warned off by regulators.
More recently, Dish has been seen as the most likely suitor, but the spectrum-rich DTH operator’s CEO, Charlie Ergen, today dismissed that possibility for the meantime.
T-Mobile US’s aggressive strategy has seen it overtake Sprint to become the third largest subscriber in terms of subscribers, and its performance added much-needed vim to Deutsche Telekom’s Q2 results, which were otherwise flat.
The Bellevue, Washington-based operator added 2.1 million subscribers in the quarter and its revenue grew 13.7% on its Q2 2014 results to US$8.2bn. Meanwhile adjusted EBITDA was up even more, by 22.8% to US$1.8bn.
Berenberg analyst Paul Marsh noted that the results were 2% better than the consensus amongst analysts, but that “all of the beat was driven by the US”.
In a memo to investors he wrote: “Excluding the US contribution, we think DTE would have shown approximately flat revenues in Q2 (slightly better than Q1) and a 2-3% yoy fall in Q2 EBITDA (slightly worse than Q1).”
T-Mobile US released an impressive set of results at the end of July and analysts are broadly positive on the outlook for the self-styled “uncarrier”, not least because it is seen as an acquisition target in the medium term.
