Frankfurt, Sept. 17 (Reuters): Deutsche Telekom has agreed to buy SunCom Wireless Holdings Inc for about $1.6 billion. Deutsche Telekom is the cellphone division of T-Mobile of the US.

Deutsche Telekom has said it will also take over SunCom’s debt of almost $800 million and that it saw synergies from the transaction of about $1 billion.

SunCom shareholders will receive $27 per share, a premium of 22.7 per cent over Friday’s closing price, the companies said.

“This acquisition will fit in well with our strategy to grow abroad with mobile primarily within our current footprint in the context of market consolidation,” Deutsche Telekom chief executive Rene Obermann said.

“We can realise significant synergies on the cost side and improve our market presence,” Obermann added.

The deal is subject to the approval of the regulator and SunCom shareholders and is expected to close in the first half of 2008.

Deutsche Telekom shares were down 0.6 per cent at 13.59 euros, slightly outperforming a 0.7 per cent drop on the German blue-chip DAX index.

SunCom, founded in 1999, operates in the southeastern part of the US and the Caribbean. It had more than 1.1 million customers by the end of June and posted a second-quarter revenue of $242.5 million.

The acquisition will enhance T-Mobile’s network coverage through the addition of SunCom’s markets and customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia

Obermann said in March he would pursue acquisitions in the mobile phone segment.

Deutsche Telekom, Europe’s largest operator in terms of sales, last month won the European Commission’s approval for T-Mobile’s Netherlands arm to buy the Dutch unit of rival France Telecom’s Orange division.