The Deutsche Telekom subsidiary T-Mobile US has announced the buyback of its own shares in the tens of billions. The volume of the share buyback decided by the group’s executive committee amounts to up to 14 billion US dollars (around 14 billion euros). The share buyback program will run until the end of September 2023, the company announced on Thursday in Bellevue. The exact timing of the purchases is still open – this year shares could be bought back for up to three billion dollars.
Telekom wants to gain a majority
The program could be part of the measures that Deutsche Telekom could use to increase its stake in the company to more than 50 percent. If the repurchased shares are withdrawn, the total number of shares will decrease and Telekom’s stake will automatically increase. Although Telekom controls the US mobile operator and already consolidates the results of T-Mobile US in its own balance sheet, it does not yet have the majority. However, the Bonn-based group is striving for this. T-Mobile US’s business has developed very well in recent years.
Most recently, T-Mobile US contributed the majority to Deutsche Telekom’s operating profit. The shares of the US mobile phone company have risen sharply on the stock exchange this year after experiencing a small phase of weakness in the second half of 2021. At the end of August, the price approached the record high of $150.20 from the summer of 2021. T-Mobile US was last worth just over $180 billion on the stock exchange. The approximately 48 percent block of shares is worth the equivalent of almost 88 billion euros. For comparison: Telekom itself currently comes to almost 94 billion euros.
