Germany’s locusts are being helpful. By buying 4.5 per cent of Deutsche Telekom from KfW, a state-owned bank, Blackstone has allowed it to avoid a potentially tricky placing. Why Blackstone has chosen to invest €2.7bn using this mechanism is far less clear. It paid a 2.6 per cent premium to Friday’s close, compared to perhaps a 2 per cent discount that a bank would typically pay to buy the stock and place it. That’s a difference of €124m, although admittedly Monday’s share price rise means Blackstone has recouped this already.

Even without a placing, a conventional institutional investor could probably have built an equivalent position, which equates to under 10 days of DT’s trading volume, without ramping up the shares. Capital owns 8 per cent of Vodafone and has recently built a huge 25 per cent stake in KPN. Unlike Capital, Blackstone has agreed a two-year lock-up. The government and KfW, with a combined DT stake of 32 per cent, are locked up for only a year.