Deutsche Telekom has narrowed the bidders for its T-Mobile Netherlands division to US private equity firms Warburg Pincus and Apollo, reports Reuters.
The two groups are expected to submit their final bids, which may value the mobile operator at more than EUR3 billion, on February 15. Deutsche Telekom may, however, opt to keep the business if it fails to get an acceptable price.
Earlier thi month, Liberty Global withdrew from the bidding process, as it has entered talks with Vodafone to form a joint venture in The Netherlands, bringing together the assets of the Ziggo cable network and Vodafone’s mobile infrastructure.
Deutsche Telekom’s Dutch subsidiary T-Mobile Nederland is the number three in the Dutch market.