FT.com / Companies / US & Canada - Deutsche Telekom in $1.6bn US buy

FT.com / Companies / US & Canada - Deutsche Telekom in $1.6bn US buy

Deutsche Telekom in $1.6bn US buy
By Reuters, September 17

Deutsche Telekom’s mobile phone division T-Mobile USA has agreed to buy SunCom Wireless Holdings for about $1.6bn, the companies said on Monday.

Deutsche Telekom said in a statement it would also take on SunCom debt of almost $800m and it saw synergies from the transaction of about $1bn.

SunCom shareholders will receive $27 a share, a 22.7 per cent premium to Friday’s closing price, the companies said.

The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2008.

SunCom, founded in 1999, operates in the south-eastern US and in the Caribbean. It had more than 1.1m customers by the end of June and posted first-half revenue of $242.5m.

The acquisition will further enhance T-Mobile’s network coverage through the addition of SunCom’s markets and customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, Deutsche Telekom said.

”With the acquisition of SunCom, we will continue to implement our strategy to `grow abroad with mobile’, which is part of our overall group strategy,” said Rene Obermann, chief executive.

Mr Obermann said in March he would pursue acquisitions in the mobile phone sector, which is expected to see continued growth.

Deutsche Telekom, Europe’s largest operator measured by sales, last month won permission from the European Commission for its T-Mobile Netherlands unit to buy the Dutch unit of rival France Telecom’s Orange division.

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