Buyback Momentum Helps Deutsche Telekom Weather Rebellion Over T-Mobile US Restructuring
Published on 07/13/2026 at 21:12 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
Deutsche Telekom shares continued their recovery on Monday, advancing 2.2% to €26.73, as a steady drumbeat of share repurchases helped counterbalance growing unease among key investors about a potential overhaul of the corporate structure. The gain extended the stock’s weekly advance to 4.9%, though over the month it still trails by 5.9% and has slipped 4.1% since the start of the year.
The lift came as the telecom giant pressed ahead with the third tranche of its 2026 buyback programme, which has a ceiling of €560 million and is due to wrap up by the end of September. Between 1 and 3 July, Deutsche Telekom bought back 908,705 of its own shares on Xetra at an average price of €24.74, spending roughly €22.5 million. That followed a purchase of 727,344 shares at €24.79 apiece in late June, worth about €18 million. Since the programme kicked off in April, the company has now repurchased more than 20 million shares. The overall plan, which runs until December, has a total envelope of up to €2 billion.
The buyback drive comes at a time when the stock is clawing its way back from a 52-week low of €23.54, set on 30 June. Monday’s close leaves the shares 13.6% above that trough, but still more than 22% below the year’s peak of €34.35 reached on 27 February. Technically, the recovery has not yet broken above near-term resistance: the 50-day moving average sits at €27.37 and the 200-day average at €28.75, both above the current price. The relative strength index of 53.2 points to a neutral reading, with neither overbought nor oversold conditions.
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Yet the market’s apparent calm masks a row brewing among the company’s largest owners. A report in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung on 11 July revealed that management is weighing a plan to fold Deutsche Telekom and its highly valued US subsidiary T-Mobile US under a single holding company – a move designed to close the persistent valuation gap between the parent and its American unit, which trades at a much richer multiple. The idea met with an immediate backlash.
Jens Ehrhardt of DJE Kapital and Martin Wirth of FPM publicly voiced reservations, while an unnamed top-30 shareholder warned bluntly that the restructuring could erode the entire group’s market value. Even the federal government, which holds roughly 28% of Deutsche Telekom and is the largest single investor, is reported to be sceptical of the proposal. For now, management has declined to comment on the speculation.
Despite the clash, equity markets appear to be treating the dispute as a distant risk rather than an immediate threat. Friday’s 3.4% rally to €26.15 had already broken a soft patch, and Monday’s follow-through suggests investors are pricing in a prolonged debate rather than a swift resolution. The conundrum for shareholders is that any tighter integration with T-Mobile US could eventually unlock substantial value – the market consistently prices the US arm far above the parent – but only if the current opposition from powerful stakeholders can be overcome.
With the second-quarter earnings report set for 6 August, the buyback programme may continue to offer a floor in the near term. But until management lays out a clear vision for the holding company idea, the stock’s path is likely to be shaped as much by boardroom politics as by operational numbers.
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