Deutsche Telekom was rumoured to be interested in selling its T-Mobile Netherlands subsidiary in a move which could be worth between €4 billion and €5 billion, revisiting the plan after failing to offload the unit in 2015.

Dutch financial daily Financieele Dagblad reported the German operator is preparing a sale of the unit, likely to private equity investors.

Deutsche Telekom was mulling an exit from the Netherlands six years ago, and had interest from Liberty Global. However, a potential sale fell through and Liberty Global subsequently merged its Ziggo cable arm with Vodafone Netherlands.

Instead of pursuing another buyer, Deutsche Telekom decided to grow its operations in the country, announcing a €190 million deal in 2017 to merge with Tele2’s local division. Deutsche Telekom said at the time it wanted to create a stronger third player and increase competition with market leaders KPN and VodafoneZiggo.

However, sources told the Dutch newspaper Deutsche Telekom is now ready to sell, with financial investors the likely targets.

A sale to one of its two larger rivals would be impossible due to competition concerns.

GSMA Intelligence estimated T-Mobile had 4.6 million mobile connections in Q4 2020. VodafoneZiggo had 5.1 million and KPN held a clear lead with 7.2 million.