Deutsche Telekom AG said it made its mobile arm an economically independent subsidiary three years ago in anticipation of the upcoming public offering of the Deutsche Telekom Group’s stock.
As one of the world’s largest telecommunications companies moves slowly from government to public ownership, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange is preparing for the biggest share flotation in German history.
Deutsche Telekom will offer 500 million shares; two-thirds will be offered in Germany, and the remainder outside of Germany. The German government will continue to hold 80 percent of the group.
The first listing in Frankfurt and the United States is scheduled for Nov. 18 and in Tokyo the following day.
Deutsche Telekom’s wireless arm used to be called DeTeMobil, but about a year ago DT changed numerous names within the group. The mobile arm now is Deutsche Telekom MobilNet GmbH, or T-Mobil. The company’s network group now is T-Net, its Internet service, T-Online, and so on.
T-Mobil has a staff of 4,300 working in a Bonn building separate from Deutsche Telekom headquarters.
“T-Mobil was the first part of the company to prove we could compete,” said Deutsche Telekom spokeswoman Katrin Weber. T-Mobil leads the German mobile phone market, where it operates two wireless networks, D1 and C-Tel, and claims a total of 2.5 million customers.
T-Mobil also offers three brands of paging service and claims to have 1 million customers. T-Mobil has operated the Modacom mobile radio data system since 1993, with 80,000 customers. T-Mobil joined the satellite communications service of Inmarsat in 1990, and has about 3,000 customers, the company said.
T-Mobil’s stated strategic goal is to have a more pronounced international presence. It leads the consortium that won an Austrian phone license; it is active in a group that won a Polish mobile phone contract; it holds 41.4 percent of a Czech Republic operator and 48.5 percent of a Russian partnership.
T-Mobil took over a 25 percent share in the Satelindo wireless company of Indonesia, and also holds shares in Swiss Modacom AG and Dutch Call Max.
The German press reported that DT executives have visited portfolio managers throughout the world, and that 3 million private investors have expressed an interest in the shares.
