Goldman Sachs plans to place the shares with institutional investors overnight.
(Photo: Reuters)
Munich The US investment bank Goldman Sachs throws a billion dollar package of Deutsche Telekom shares on the market overnight. The 90 million shares valued at 1.58 billion euros are part of a complex transaction with the Japanese technology investor Softbank, which had only got into the Bonn telecommunications giant at the beginning of September.
At that time, the Japanese got a new 225 million Telekom shares, which they have to hold until the end of 2024. Softbank is now using 90 million of the papers as security for the deal with Goldman Sachs. A Telekom spokesman emphasized that this would not change anything in Softbank’s 4.5 percent stake in the Bonn company.
A month ago, Softbank had become the second largest shareholder in Telekom after the German state. At that time, their boss, Tim Höttges, spoke of a strategic partnership. The Japanese helped Telekom increase its stake in the US subsidiary T-Mobile US to 48.4 from 43.2 percent. Last year, T-Mobile US teamed up with competitor Sprint, which was owned by Softbank.
As part of the agreement, the Japanese acquired 225 million Telekom shares in September at a valuation of EUR 20 each, while in return the company received 45 million T-Mobile US shares from Softbank.
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Softbank had undertaken to hold the Telekom shares until the end of 2024, but reserved the right to use some of them as collateral for financing or hedging transactions. Softbank is one of the world’s most important investors in technology companies.
The Telekom share ended Tuesday’s Xetra trading at EUR 17.61. In late trading it fell to 17.31 euros. Goldman Sachs plans to place the 90 million shares with institutional investors overnight. Usually the papers are sold in such campaigns at a discount to the market price.
More: This is Softbank’s strong man at Telekom.