Telefonica began assessing the sale of its majority stake in Telefonica Deutschland, business website WirtschaftsWoche reported.

The Spain-headquartered group holds a 69.2 per cent share in Telefonica Deutschland, Netherlands-based KPN owns 8.6 per cent and the remainder is listed on the Frankfurt stock exchange.

Sources told WirtschaftsWoche Telefonica was investigating selling a part – or all of – its stake, though details on the reason for the sale or identity of a potential buyer were limited.

Telefonica derived €7.3 billion in revenue from its fixed and mobile operations in Germany in 2017, down 2.8 per cent year-on-year.

Its mobile brand O2 Deutschland is one of three mobile operators in the country, and ended 2017 with 45.9 million mobile connections. The company tussles for mobile leadership with Deutsche Telekom, while Vodafone Germany stands around 10 million connections behind the leading duo, GSMA intelligence figures for Q4 2017 showed.