Deutsche Telekom to sell stake to US group

US investment group Blackstone will buy 4.5% of Deutsche Telekom AG, Europe's biggest phone company, for 2.68 billion euros ($3.3 billion), an Associated Press report said.

The report said Blackstone had agreed to buy 191.7 million shares in Deutsche Telekom from Germany 's KfW bank for 14 euros each ($17.27).

US shares of the Bonn, Germany-based company jumped $0.71, or 4.2 %, to $17.55 in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange, the report said.

The report said New York-based Blackstone, one of the world's biggest private equity firms, would be a long-term investor in the former German telephone monopoly.

It pledged to hold the shares for at least two years, the report said.

Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck welcomed Blackstone's pledge to take a long-term view and said its investment was a vote of confidence in the much-maligned company, the report said.