T-Mobile Netherlands sells to Apax, Warburg Pincus for EUR 5.1 billion

News General Netherlands 7 SEP 2021
T-Mobile Netherlands sells to Apax, Warburg Pincus for EUR 5.1 billion

Deutsche Telekom and Tele2 have agreed to sell T-Mobile Netherlands for an enterprise value of EUR 5.1 billion to the private equity funds Apax and Warburg Pincus. T-Mobile said it plans to continue its strategy as a challenger on the Dutch market under the new owners.

Customers should see no change in services, according to the operator. It will continue with its four brands T-Mobile, Tele2, Ben and Simpel as well as the cooperation with Open Dutch Fiber.

The new owners said they would help the company grow even faster. T-Mobile is already the leading mobile operator in the Netherlands and has been the strongest grower on the fixed market in recent years. 

Closing of the deal still requires regulatory clearance and consultation with the works council. 

Cash proceeds, special dividends

Deutsche Telekom owns 75 percent of T-Mobile and Tele2 has a 25 percent stake after it sold its Dutch operations to the group in 2018. Deutsche Telekom announced last year that it was relaunching the sale of the company after an earlier failed attempt to achieve the valuation it wanted. The sale agreement is equal to 8.7 times adjusted EBITDA AL of T-Mobile. 

Telekom said it would receive EUR 3.8 billion net cash after closing. That includes repayment of its shareholder loans to the Dutch company. It will deconsolidate T-Mobile NL, which generated just over EUR 2 billion in revenues and EUR 582 million of adjusted EBITDA AL in the 12 months to June 2021. 

Tele2 plans to use its 25 percent share of the proceeds to pay a special dividend of SEK 11 per share. The company said this completes the consolidation of its international business, with its focus going forward on Sweden and the Baltics.

The sale agreement follows reports that India's Reliance Industries was also readying a bid for T-Mobile. Owner of the Indian mobile operator Jio, Reliance would likely have introduced more competition on the Dutch market. 

Previous investments by Apax and Warburg Pincus include Dutch cable operator Ziggo, Switzerland's Salt, TDC in Denmark, Germany's Inexio and Community Fibre in the UK. They are also joint owners of satellite operator Inmarsat.

Categories:

General

Companies:

Tele2,  T-Mobile Netherlands,  Deutsche Telekom

Countries:

Netherlands

Tags:

Wholesale, Corporate strategy, M&A buyouts & divestments, Market research

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