At Eutelsat headquarters in Paris, January 9, 2015 (AFP/Archives/ERIC PIERMONT)
The French satellite operator Eutelsat confirmed on Monday that it had initiated discussions with a view to a “possible rapprochement” with the British OneWeb and its constellation intended to provide high-speed internet, in particular competing with the Starlink of the American SpaceX. .
A specialist in geostationary orbit, with its fleet of 35 satellites positioned 36,000 kilometers from the Earth for satellite broadcasting and high-speed internet services, Eutelsat is already a shareholder in OneWeb, in which it holds 23% of the capital.
The British company OneWeb has already deployed 428 of the 648 satellites in its constellation in low orbit, at an altitude of a few hundred km in order to provide high-speed Internet with low latency or data transmission delay, essential for meet growing needs.
This merger project aims to position the whole in the high-speed space internet sector, in particular to serve isolated regions without fiber optics or to be able to meet the future needs of the connected car, for example.
It would allow the emergence of a new giant facing Starlink, the constellation of American billionaire Elon Musk, which has already deployed more than half of the 4,408 satellites in its constellation, or the future Kuiper constellation of Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.
“The combined entity would be the first multi-orbit satellite operator offering integrated GEO/LEO solutions (geostationary and low orbit, editor’s note), and would be uniquely positioned to address the booming connectivity market, estimated at $16 billion. by 2030,” said Eutelsat in a press release on this merger project unveiled on Saturday by the Bloomberg agency.
“Under the terms of the contemplated transaction, the shareholders of Eutelsat and OneWeb would each hold 50% of the shares of the combined group,” said Eutelsat. The transaction will be done by exchange of shares, the shareholders of each of the two groups holding half of the future entity.
In addition to the Indian conglomerate Bharti (30%) and Eutelsat (22.9%), the capital of OneWeb includes the British government (17.6%), the Japanese Softbank (17.6%) and the Korean conglomerate Hanwa (8, 8%).
Eutelsat is 20% owned by Bpifrance, the French state’s public investment bank, as well as by the Strategic Participation Fund (FSP) held by seven French insurers, the rest of the capital being floating.
Around 07:45 GMT, the Eutelsat title plunged 15.20% to 8.81 euros, on the Paris Stock Exchange which, it fell slightly by 0.15%.
“There is no guarantee that these discussions will lead to an agreement. Eutelsat will inform the market of any new development in due course”, adds the French operator.
© 2022 AFP
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