Deutsche Telekom Eyes Austrian Telering

T-Mobile, the mobile phone arm of German telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom, looks set to win the bidding for Austrian rival Telering, the daily Süddeutsche Zeitung reported on Monday. The newspaper quoted company sources as saying that T-Mobile had submitted an offer of 1.3 billion euros (1.6 billion dollars) for Austria's fourth-biggest mobile phone operator, currently owned by Western Wireless Corporation. Also in the running are Dutch telecoms giant KPN, Austrian firm ONe and investment funds Permira and Apax, but T-Mobile is in the lead, the newspaper said. Deutsche Telekom's supervisory board was likely to give the green light to a deal this week. Telering has 1.1 million customers and if T-Mobile succeeds in buying it, it would become the leading Austrian player ahead of Mobilkom Austria, Süddeutsche Zeitung added.