BONN, Germany (Reuters) - Deutsche Telekom (>> Deutsche Telekom AG) is keen for its T-Mobile US (>> T-Mobile Us Inc) subsidiary to take part in a consolidation of the U.S. mobile market and is open to being either a buyer or a seller, its chief executive said on Thursday.

The German company has invested heavily in T-Mobile US to turn it into the group's revenue and profit driver, as shown by 2016 results published earlier.

"Are we rather seller or buyer? It always depends on the quality of the possibilities - I don't prejudge," CEO Tim Hoettges told a news conference. "We do everything from the point of view of value creation."

Sources told Reuters last month that Japan's SoftBank (>> SoftBank Group Corp) was prepared to cede control of U.S. number-four mobile carrier Sprint (>> Sprint Corp) to enable a Sprint-T-Mobile merger, although it had not yet approached T-Mobile.

No merger talks are currently allowed between rival bidders in a U.S. airwave spectrum auction, which should end next month.

(Reporting by Georgina Prodhan; Editing by Maria Sheahan)