DT CEO Ron Sommer recently remarked that advisors have suggested pushing back the IPO of T-Mobile until after DT completes its acquisition of U.S. carrier VoiceStream Wireless Corp., said spokesman Stephan Broszio. T-Mobile is the holding company for DT’s wireless properties T-Mobil in Germany (DeTeMobil Deutsche Telekom MobilNet GmbH), One2One PLC in the United Kingdom, and Max Mobil Telekommunikation Service GmbH in Austria.
“We have always said we are planning for October, but we have to check the effects of our buying of VoiceStream,” said Broszio. He added that the delay would be in order to meet regulatory requirements that DT include details about the VoiceStream deal in its prospectus for T-Mobile shares. “It should really be an alternative which should give us the confidence of the investor, we wouldn’t just do a quick prospectus with a lot of holes in it,” he said.
DT has offered 3.2 Deutsche Telekom shares and US$30 in cash for each VoiceStream share, valuing the deal at some $50.7 billion.
“As we gained much experience with the IPO of (DT’s Internet subsidiary) T-Online (International AG),” Broszio continued, “There are a lot of details which are different for each country, and it’s just a question how much work has to be done to include this deal in the prospectus.”
A final decision on when to make the IPO is expected this week or next week, said Broszio.
Deutsche Telekom, in Bonn, can be reached at http://www.telekom.de/.