A Gleiss Lutz team has advised Deutsche Telekom AG in the bidding process for the sale of a majority stake of 51 per cent in its GD Towers business to a bidding consortium comprising Canadian asset manager Brookfield and U.S. infrastructure investment firm DigitalBridge. The deal values Deutsche Telekom's towers portfolio at EUR 17.5 billion. Closing of the transaction is subject to the customary regulatory clearances and is scheduled for the end of 2022.
Deutsche Telekom will retain 49 per cent of the shares and significant minority rights.
With around 800 employees, GD Towers operates more than 40,000 sites in Germany and Austria. The company generated EUR 1.1 billion of pro forma revenue in 2021. Its pro forma adjusted EBITDA AL amounted to EUR 640 million in 2021.
Telekom Deutschland and Magenta Austria will continue to enjoy unrestricted access to GD Towers' passive mobile infrastructure via a favourable long-term lease agreement.
The transaction was handled by the following in-house team led by Dr Axel Lützner (Legal M&A): Robert Joachim Saß, Rainer Stockmann, Christoph Appel, Dirk Langner and Friederike Vogel.
A Gleiss Lutz team led by partners Dr. Ralf Morshäuser, Dr. Jan Balssen (both Munich), Dr. Christian Cascante (Frankfurt, all M&A), Steffen Carl (Munich, corporate, joint lead), Dr. Johann Wagner (tax, Hamburg), Dr. Adrian Bingel (Stuttgart, corporate) and counsel Dr. Tobias Falkner (Munich, M&A) provided comprehensive advice to Deutsche Telekom AG on this transaction:
Dr. Olaf Hohlefelder (Munich, M&A), Dr. Patrick Mossler (partner), Jan Philipp Mohr (Counsel, both M&A, Hamburg), Prof. Dr. Michael Arnold (partner), Dr. Vera Rothenburg (partner, both Corporate, Stuttgart), Dr. Martin Viciano Gofferje (partner, Berlin), Melina Grauschopf, Dr. Moritz Lochmann, Dr. Stephanie Dausinger, Maximilian Imre (all Munich, all M&A), Karen Gräfin vom Hagen, Nikolas Frey, Dr. Lucas Hertneck, Julia Schumann (all Stuttgart), Dr Michael Knierbein (Hamburg), Julia Wohlmuth (Frankfurt, all M&A), Teresa Link (Stuttgart), Dr Theresa Trautmann, Dr Julius Scheifele (both Munich, all Corporate), Dr Hendrik Marchal (counsel), Paul Hentschel (both Hamburg), Dr Ocka Stumm (partner), Dr Leonhard Kornwachs, both Frankfurt, all Tax), Dr. Alexander Molle (partner, IP/IT, Berlin), Dr. Frank Schlobach (partner), Dr. Katja Lehr (counsel, both Finance), Dr. Tim Weber (partner), Maximilian Leisenheimer (both Infrastructure/Real Estate, all Frankfurt), Dr. Jacob von Andreae (partner), Aylin Hoffs (both Regulatory), Dr. Steffen Krieger (partner, Labour Law, all Düsseldorf).
Gleiss Lutz served as lead counsel, working together with the following firms:
Cuatrecasas (partners: Pere Kirchner, Gerard Correig, Dr. Kai Christian Fischer, associate: Roger Freixes Portes, all Barcelona, all M&A)
Schönherr (Sascha Hödl, Maximilian Lang, both partners, M&A).
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