Deutsche Telekom has narrowed the bidders for T-Mobile Netherlands to private equity firms Warburg Pincus and Apollo, people familiar with the transaction told Reuters. The two groups are expected to submit their final bids, which may value the mobile operator at more than EUR 3 billion, on 15 February. DT may, however, opt to keep the business if it fails to get an acceptable price, one of the sources said.
Liberty Global dropped out of the bidding for T-Mobile, in order to pursue talks on a joint venture with Vodafone in the Netherlands, the report said. Other initial bidders such as buyout groups Apax and CVC have also dropped out, according to Reuters' sources. Deutsche Telekom is hoping to get at least EUR 3.6 billion or about 8 times expected annual EBITDA of EUR 450 million for T-Mobile. Warburg Pincus is working on the deal with Deutsche Telekom's former CEO Rene Obermann, who was also briefly CEO of Dutch cable operator Ziggo.
