Bulletin: Deutsche Telekom's 2021 Results Confirm The Potential For A Future Upgrade

PARIS (S&P Global Ratings) Feb. 25, 2022--S&P Global Ratings said today that the 2021 full-year results announced by Deutsche Telekom AG (DT; BBB/Stable/A-2) support our expectation that DT could significantly improve its S&P Global Ratings-adjusted credit metrics to levels commensurate with a higher rating within about three years. As we had expected, DT's debt leverage increased in 2021, on the back of a heavy $9.3 billion outlay on acquiring spectrum in the U.S. in particular. Reported leverage was 3.06x, up from 2.78x the previous year (pro forma the 12-month consolidation of DT's subsidiary T-Mobile U.S.). That said, DT's reaffirmed objective is to bring its reported leverage down below 2.75x by 2024. This should translate into an S&P Global Ratings-adjusted leverage

...February 25, 2022 PARIS (S&P Global Ratings) Feb. 25, 2022--S&P Global Ratings said today that the 2021 full-year results announced by Deutsche Telekom AG (DT; ###/Stable/A-2) support our expectation that DT could significantly improve its S&P Global Ratings-adjusted credit metrics to levels commensurate with a higher rating within about three years. As we had expected, DT's debt leverage increased in 2021, on the back of a heavy $9.3 billion outlay on acquiring spectrum in the U.S. in particular. Reported leverage was 3.06x, up from 2.78x the previous year (pro forma the 12-month consolidation of DT's subsidiary T-Mobile U.S.). That said, DT's reaffirmed objective is to bring its reported leverage down below 2.75x by 2024. This should translate into an S&P Global Ratings-adjusted leverage comfortably below 3.5x, the level for an upgrade, down from our forecast of about 3.6x-3.7x over 2021-2022. We believe that DT's healthy operating results for 2021, including organic growth in service...

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