New shareholders for Deutsche Funkturm
• DigitalBridge and Brookfield join Deutsche Telekom as shareholders
• Long-term agreement secures network expansion for Telekom
• With five new antenna sites per working day, Deutsche Funkturm is already one of the leading Tower Companies in Europe
Münster, 01.02.2023: DFMG Deutsche Funkturm GmbH, Germany's biggest provider of radio infrastructure, has new owners. Investment firms DigitalBridge and Brookfield, from the U.S and Canada respectively, join Deutsche Telekom as shareholders. Together, they aim to develop the company based in Münster towards Europe’s leading tower company.
In July last year, Deutsche Telekom announced the sale of 51 percent of its tower assets in Germany and Austria to Brookfield and DigitalBridge at 17.5 billion euros enterprise value. This partial sale has now been completed. The two new partners already have a significant presence in the European tower sector and are contributing both expertise and long-dated capital for further growth.
"With a long-term agreement, we are securing the support of Deutsche Funkturm to expand our undisputed network leadership in Germany. Through our 49-percent stake, we will benefit from further value growth in the tower business," says Thorsten Langheim, Member of the Deutsche Telekom AG Board of Management for USA and Group Development. A long-term agreement ensures the unrestricted operation and expansion of Deutsche Telekom's mobile communications network.
"Last year, we launched around five new antenna sites every working day. Amongst our European competition, this puts us at the very top," says Bruno Jacobfeuerborn, Managing Director of Deutsche Funkturm. "Telekom Deutschland continues to secure us full order books. At the same time, DigitalBridge and Brookfield give us even more flexibility to offer our infrastructure to additional customers."
Deutsche Funkturm, founded in 2002 as a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, is Germany's biggest provider of radio infrastructure, with 34,000 antenna sites and revenues of around one billion euros. In addition to masts and rooftop sites, its portfolio also includes Germany's major television towers. With more than a thousand new sites every year, the company is driving the expansion of mobile communications in cities and rural areas.
Deutsche Funkturm has around 750 employees throughout Germany. The company is headquartered in Münster with about 180 employees. Together with its Austrian sister company Magenta Telekom Infra, Deutsche Telekom's tower business comprises a total of 40,000 antenna sites, which are grouped under the name GD Towers.
