Andres Gonzalez; Nadine Schmroszik, Emma-Victoria Farr

MADRID (Reuters), – Deutsche Telekom, (OTC:) began the sale of its towers businesses and anticipates indicative offers within the coming weeks, according to three people with knowledge about the transaction.

Two sources spoke on condition of anonymity to say that the German company has been working with Goldman Sachs, NYSE:, as an advisor for the sale of 40,600 masts. This deal could bring the value of the business close to 18 billion euro ($19.9 million).

Deutsche Telekom spokeswoman said that the company was currently reviewing various options regarding the tower business, as it announced last year at its capital markets day.

In recent years, telecom towers were the focus of numerous takeovers as companies look to cut costs and debt.

Deutsche Telekom is in dire need of cash to pay down its debt of 130 billion Euros and open up funds for infrastructure investment. T-Mobile will also be needed to control the U.S. subsidiary, T-Mobile. T-Mobile accounts for over three-fifths (or 65%) of all group sales.

Two sources claimed that Cellnex, a Spanish operator of mobile phone infrastructure, and American Tower Corp (NYSE 🙂 from the United States are making offers as they try to increase their presence in Europe for next-generation 5G technology.

American Tower, Goldman Sachs, and Cellnex declined to comment.

American Tower and Cellnex, the largest independent tower operator in Europe are Cellnex and Cellnex. Cellnex owns 130,000 tower locations.

American Tower owns nearly 220,000 towers worldwide, with a quarter in Europe. Around 170,000 towers remain under the control of mobile operators.

This deal could also be attractive to private equity investors or competitors like Vodafone (NASDAQ:),’s Vantage, or Orange’s Totem.

Vantage is home to approximately 82,000 towers and Totem, only 26,000.

Vodafone CEO Nick Read stated in February that Vantage Towers’ next move should be merger. Orange’s Stephane Rich has also suggested the possibility of Totem joining forces with another operator in Europe.

While companies are reluctant to list shares due to the conflict in Ukraine, mergers of telecom firms and acquisitions continue to take place.

France’s Orange and Spain’s MasMovil have announced that they are in talks to merge with Spain.

($1 = 0.9026 euros)

(Aditional reporting in Madrid by Joan Faus; Editing by Emelia Sithole Matarise and John O’Donnell.