German incumbent Deutsche Telekom will start looking at potential buyers for the towers of its American subsidiary T-Mobile USA in Q2 2011. A Deutsche spokesperson told TelecomFinance that it will be evaluating a possible sell-off its towers on a…
German incumbent Deutsche Telekom will start looking at potential buyers for the towers of its American subsidiary T-Mobile USA in Q2 2011.
A Deutsche spokesperson told TelecomFinance that it will be evaluating a possible sell-off its towers on a sale-and-leaseback basis.
He said that the towers will only be sold if the business case works, specifically that the sale must fit with the company’s strategy and the valuation is attractive.
He added that most US network operators no longer own their towers, so this strategy has already been proven.
He would not comment on advisers for the transaction.
Last week, Deutsche Telekom published disappointing results for T-Mobile USA. 2010 revenue was E9.1bn, which had increased 2.1% from 2009. But 2010 EBITDA was E900m, down 2.3% from the figure for 2009.
T-Mobile USA also lost 390,000 contract customers in 2010.
Across the whole of Deutsche Telekom, revenue dropped from E64.6bn in 2009 to E62.4bn in 2010.
Net profit increased from E400m in 2009 up to E1.7bn in 2010. However, there had been a decrease in EBITDA, which was E5.5bn in 2010, down 8.4% from the previous year.
