DTE Deutsche Telekom AG

By Mauro Orru

A consortium of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners LP and DigitalBridge Group Inc. agreed to buy a stake in Deutsche Telekom AG's tower business for 17.5 billion euros ($17.60 billion) including debt, raising their bet on a telecommunications sector that has seen a flurry of deal making in recent years.

Germany's Deutsche Telekom on Thursday said it had agreed to sell the consortium a 51% stake in GD Towers, its tower business in Germany and Austria, after a yearlong effort to sell part of the business.

GD Towers operates more than 40,000 sites across Germany and Austria, and will hand the consortium some 800 employees.

"This represents a great opportunity to invest in a highly attractive tower portfolio, with highly contracted cash flows and strong upside potential," Sam Pollock, managing partner at Brookfield, said.

For Deutsche Telekom, the sale will give it more leeway to trim a net debt pile that stood at EUR135.95 billion at the end of March. The company said it expects a reduction in net debt including leases of EUR6.5 billion. Closing of the deal is expected toward end of the year.

News of the deal with the consortium comes after Spain's Cellnex Telecom SA pulled out of the race, putting an end to speculation that the Spanish company had made concessions to secure a share of the business.

Write to Mauro Orru at mauro.orru@wsj.com; @MauroOrru94

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 14, 2022 01:52 ET (05:52 GMT)

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