The transaction solidifies Deutsche Telekom’s majority stake in T-Mobile US

German operator Deutsche Telekom activated an option to buy an additional 6.7 million shares in its subsidiary T-Mobile US from Japanese company SoftBank Group, the former said in a statement.

Through this agreement, the carrier exercised options at fixed price of $99.51 per share.

Deutsche Telekom highlighted that the agreement allowed it to acquire the shares at a 45% discount to the current price of the T-Mobile US share of $179.82 as of June 7, 2024.

The additional shares represent around 0.6% of T Mobile US’s outstanding shares.

“The transaction solidifies Deutsche Telekom’s majority stake in T-Mobile US. The additional shares represent around 0.6% of T Mobile US’s outstanding shares,” the German operator said.

“Upon completion of the transaction, Deutsche Telekom will have exercised all 44.9 million fixed price options received from SoftBank to acquire TM US shares, thereby continuously increasing its stake in T Mobile US at favorable conditions,” it added.

This transaction concludes the purchase of fixed price options agreed between SoftBank and the German operator in June 2020, two months after the completion of the merger of T-Mobile US with SoftBank-owned Sprint.

Deutsche Telekom’s ownership of T-Mobile US was diluted to 43% when the U.S. company merged with Sprint, as Sprint’s owner, SoftBank, took 24% of the combined entity. In 2022, Deutsche Telekom acquired 21.2 million shares from SoftBank for $2.4 billion, increasing its stake to 48.4%.

In April 2023, Deutsche Telekom said it had finally surpassed a 50% stake in T-Mobile US after years of steadily increasing its ownership in the American company. During a DT general meeting, CEO Timotheus Hoettges shared that the company has been going after a majority stake in T-Mobile US since 2021.