T-Mobile US’ strong performance is not going unnoticed by parent company Deutsche Telekom, which is angling to gain a controlling stake in its U.S. division.

DT CEO Timotheus Hottges noted during the carrier’s most recent earnings call that “we want to achieve a clear 51% shareholding in the U.S.” He added that DT had “raised our stake in T-Mobile US to 48.4%. It brings us closer to our goal of owning the majority in the U.S.”

DT controlled 62% of T-Mobile US prior to its Sprint acquisition which closed in 2020. The deal watered down DT’s control to around 42%, with the former Sprint owner SoftBank controlling a 27% stake.

The German telecom giant has since been slowly buying out SoftBank’s stake in T-Mobile. SoftBank has been busy unloading its investments, such as T-Mobile and Alibaba, in order to raise cash and shore up its portfolio after reported a $23 billion loss in the second quarter of 2022. Its most recent sale of T-Mobile shares to DT totaled approximately $2.4 billion, according to SoftBank's most recent earnings report.

Hottges explained that DT and SoftBank had arrangements in place toward additional share acquisitions that were tied to specific T-Mobile US stock price metrics. T-Mobile US’ stock price recently hit a new 52-week high of nearly $148 per share and has been trading around that level over the past two weeks.

DT last month entered into a deal to sell a 51% stake in its GD Towers business to DigitalBridge and Brookfield for around $18 billion. It noted plans to use the estimated $11 billion in net proceeds from that deal toward buying a controlling interest in T-Mobile US.

T-Mobile US outpacing the market

That majority ownership should provide DT with greater access to what has been a successful anomaly in the U.S. market.

T-Mobile US reported robust Q2 earnings and a bullish outlook for the remainder of the year. This was counter to rivals Verizon and AT&T, which both expressed second-half concerns tied to recessionary challenges.

The company this week also entered into a deal to acquire a cache of 600 MHz spectrum licenses for $3.5 billion. The carrier is currently leasing those licenses to help power its expansive 5G network.

DT reported that its U.S. operations accounted for two-thirds of its net revenue for its latest fiscal quarter.