KfW Has No Knowledge Of Blackstone Deutsche Telekom Plan

FRANKFURT -(Dow Jones)- KfW Bankengruppe Friday said it has no knowledge of a plan by Blackstone Group to fully take over telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom, a spokeswoman for the state-owned bank said Friday.

"We have no knowledge of such a plan," the spokeswoman told Dow Jones Newswires Friday. She declined to elaborate further.

KfW sold a 4.5% stake in Deutsche Telekom to Blackstone at the end of April, reducing its stake in the former state monopolist to 16.6%. The German government holds 14.6% in Deutsche Telekom, with some 68.8% in free float.

Some 68.8% of Deutsche Telekom shares are in freefloat.

The German government said Friday it isn't aware of any plans that Blackstone Group is preparing a takeover of Deutsche Telekom, as a media report suggested.

"I am not aware of the whole process," the government spokesman Thomas Steg said Friday.

Asked about whether Blackstone has approached the government, he said: "I have no knowledge about this, but I'll have to look into it."

Earlier Friday weekly WirtschaftsWoche said in an advance copy of Monday's magazine that Blackstone Group Chief Executive Stephen Schwarzman is preparing a complete takeover of Deutsche Telekom.

Without revealing its sources, the magazine said Schwarzman is raising around EUR60 billion in capital from investors for the bid and plans to launch the bid in spring 2007.

Deutsche Telekom declined to comment Friday and referred questions to Blackstone, KfW and the German government.

Company Web site: http://www.kfw.de

-By Christian Streckert, Dow Jones Newswires; +49 69 29 725 500; christian.streckert@dowjones.com

(Stefan Mechnig in Duesseldorf, Andreas Kissler and Michelle Schmitz in Berlin contributed to this report)

(END) Dow Jones Newswires "

Posted to the site on 23rd June 2006