Elliott builds stake in Deutsche Telekom, source says

Sept 2 (Reuters) - Elliott Investment Management has built a stake in Deutsche Telekom, a person with knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday.

The exact size of the activist investor's stake in the German telecom company could not be determined.

Bloomberg News, first reporting the news earlier on Wednesday, said Elliott indicated that Deutsche Telekom should ditch a potential merger with T-Mobile US and look at other ways to unlock shareholder value, including larger share buybacks.

T-Mobile, Deutsche Telekom's American arm, declined a Reuters request for comment. Elliott and the German company did not immediately respond.

Reuters reported in April that Deutsche Telekom is ​exploring a deal to combine with T-Mobile US and create a transatlantic telecoms giant in what would be the largest-ever public merger.

Deutsche Telekom holds around a 54% stake in T-Mobile — its biggest earnings driver.

However, Semafor reported in July that T-Mobile's U.S. executives had told Deutsche Telekom that they no longer support a merger due to shareholder and potential regulatory concerns.

Deutsche Telekom, one of Europe's largest telecommunications groups, with over 273 million mobile customers, has a market capitalization of around $157 billion, below T-Mobile's $200 billion.

A deal would have created the world's biggest wireless operator by market value, beating China Mobile.

Deutsche Telekom's ties to T-Mobile date back around 25 years, with its ownership stake fluctuating over that period, although the German group has tightened its grip since 2020.

The German carrier's CEO Timotheus Hoettges told investors in February that the company was assessing ways to increase its stake in T-Mobile US.

(Reporting by Carlos Méndez in Mexico City, Anousha Sakoui, and Harshita Mary Varghese; Editing by Joyjeet Das and Sahal Muhammed)