T-Mobile will soon prepare an offering of additional stock for the open market in order to build short-term cash reserves for future capital investment. As the carrier is expected to participate in January’s 600 Mhz spectrum auction being conducted by the FCC in order to improve mobile broadband access between smaller carriers and simultaneously raise revenue, the impending sale is being seen as an early sign that T-Mobile wants to prepare for the auction.
The share volume on offer is worth $1.96 billion based on Monday’s closing price of $26.97, which includes an additional 6 million shares for the underwriters of the stock sale, which include Morgan Stanley, Goldman, Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank, though T-Mobile declined to specify how much it was looking to raise in total proceeds from the sale. T-Mobile USA stakeholder Deutsche Telekom went a step further and confirmed that the sale would reduce its stake in the company by 6% to 67%.
Currently, T-Mobile is riding a renewed wave of success as it has become one of the few carriers to consistently add new postpaid customers thanks to its recent moves away from standard service agreements and iPhone launches, all the while moving quickly to expand LTE service and expanding its HSPA+ coverage area. The company has also seen immediate success with its MetroPCS acquisition as it will add more cities on the 21st :
- Albuquerque – Santa Fe, NM
- Cincinnati – Dayton, OH
- Columbus, OH
- Denver – Colorado Springs, CO
- El Paso, Texas – Las Cruces, NM
- Fayetteville, AR
- Indianapolis, IN
- Louisville – Jefferson County, KY
- Oklahoma City, OK
- Phoenix, AZ
- Pittsburgh, PA
- Portland, OR
- South Bend – Fort Wayne, IN
- Tucson, AZ
- Tulsa, OK
The above expansion will see the MetroPCS brand roll out in 45 markets where there previously was no presence for the MetroPCS brand, a stunning achievement considering the former incarnation of the company was stagnant and nearly close to contracting in terms of operations as a CDMA/LTE carrier, while the current expansion will be a highlight for the brand that saw its acquisition close just four months ago and is hitting the ground running in terms of moving customers from CDMA to HSPA/LTE and drawing in new customers.
