The government is joining The French State via the APE (Agence des Participations de l’Etat). Also, taking part is Bharti Space Limited, CMA CGM, and FSP.
Investment
Basically, the UK government is looking to maintain a stake in the satellite communications sector. Eutelsat itself describes space as “a key sovereign strategic asset”.
For the UK, the total of the investment will be €90 million. The transaction is due to complete by the end of 2025.
Following the transactions, the French State will hold a stake of 29.65% of Eutelsat’s capital and voting rights. The UK Government’s share will be 10.89%.
Bharti Space Limited, CMA CGM, and FSP will respectively hold 17.88%, 7.46%, and 4.99% of the share capital. They are all “Reserved Capital Increase Investors” and would not be in a position to launch a public takeover.
Space Technologies
“From checking the weather forecast on our phones to navigating with GPS in our cars, satellites underpin industrial activity worth £364 billion to the UK economy,” said the UK’s Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, Peter Kyle.
“But their critical role extends far beyond economic growth. As our adversaries increasingly use space technologies to harm us, resilient satellite connectivity has become essential to our continent’s national security. This investment reflects our commitment to support the development of these critical technologies and maintain an important stake in the global satellite communications sector.”
Capital boost
For its part, Eutelsat highlighted the UK’s previous support for OneWeb.
“We are delighted by this support from His Majesty’s Government, which has been one of the mainstays of OneWeb, and subsequently Eutelsat’s anchor shareholders from the outset of our Low Earth Orbit journey,” said its CEO Jean-François Fallacher.
“In the current environment it is crucial that our countries continue to collaborate and support each other, including in Space, which has become a key sovereign strategic asset. We remain committed to the UK which we consider as one of our home markets and to supporting the development of OneWeb to address the needs of all our sovereign and commercial stakeholders.”
OneWeb Eutelsat
The UK government previously had an almost 20% stake in OneWeb, which was finally acquired by Eutelsat in November 2022. Under the terms of the merger, the UK government retain rights over procurement. It also decides the location of the company HQ and can veto customers on grounds of national security.
Before that, OneWeb was bought out of bankruptcy by the British government and India’s Bharti Global.
The OneWeb LEO constellation, providing broadband services, consists of almost 600 satellites.
Image: Eutelsat
