Deutsche Telekom possible privatisation could fetch EUR 10bn for broadband investment
Deutsche Telekom (FRA:DTE), the listed German telephony company, may be privatized to yield more than EUR 10bn for broadband investments, Frankfurter Allgemeine Woche reported.
The German-language news report said the idea is advocated by Carsten Linnemann, a federal parliament member who is a leading economist in Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU party. He claimed to see strong support in the CDU for the notion.
He said that after the impending federal parliament election, the government may choose to sell its shares in Deutsche Telekom and spend the proceeds exclusively on building up a glass fiber network.
The privatization scenario would be a strong probability if the outcome of the election leads to a coalition government in which the CDU teams up with FDP or the Greens, Linnemann said. It would probably not come to fruition should the CDU form a coalition with the SPD.
The German government has a direct stake of 14.5% in the phone company; it holds an additional 17.4% through the public development bank KfW, according to the report said