Eutelsat announced on Monday that it was in "
discussions (...) with a view to a possible merger
" with OneWeb, in which it is already a 23% shareholder.
“
The combined entity would be the first multi-orbit satellite operator offering integrated GEO/LEO (geostationary and low orbit) solutions, and would be uniquely positioned to address the growing connectivity market, estimated at $16 billion. by 2030
,” said Eutelsat in a press release on this merger project.
Eutelsat specializes in geostationary orbit, with its fleet of 35 satellites positioned 36,000 kilometers from the Earth, which are mainly and historically used for satellite television broadcasting, but also provide high-speed internet.
The British company OneWeb specializes in internet provided from space: it has already deployed 428 of the 648 satellites in its constellation in low orbit, a few hundred kilometers above sea level, and plans to launch its service globally at the end of the year.
The operation, if it sees the light of day, is part of major maneuvers within the space sector to meet the ever-increasing needs for high-speed internet in low orbit.
Positioned at an altitude of a few hundred kilometers, these satellites, which are smaller than traditional telecommunications satellites, allow low-latency communications, ie with reduced transmission delay.
The needs are enormous, whether to serve isolated regions without fiber optics or to meet the future needs of the connected car, for example.
In this race, American billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX has taken a step ahead.
More than half of the 4,408 satellites in its Starlink constellation have already been deployed, out of a total of 42.
000 expected, eventually.
Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, plans to deploy more than 3,200 satellites for his Kuiper constellation.
Put an end to “
white zones
”
The European Union also wants to deploy its own constellation in low orbit of around 250 satellites from 2024, in the name of sovereignty.
This constellation will make it possible, according to European Commissioner Thierry Breton, to put an end to "
white zones
" in Europe, to offer encrypted communications to States using quantum technologies, and to have redundancy with terrestrial networks, targets of cyberattacks.
As for China, it also has its own constellation project, Guowang, with 13,000 satellites.
"
Low-orbit constellations are a market that can potentially become strategic for governments
," said AFP Romain Pierredon, analyst at AlphaValue.
“
Right now, the stakes are more and more sovereign, we see it with semiconductors and in other industries.
The goal is not to depend on anyone, so Europe would be a potential big customer for OneWeb
,” he added.
Under the terms of the proposed transaction, "
Eutelsat and OneWeb shareholders would each hold 50% of the shares of the combined group
," Eutelsat said.
The transaction would be done by exchange of shares, the shareholders of each of the two groups holding half of the future entity.
At the close of trading on Monday, the Eutelsat share plunged 17.8% to 8.57 euros on the Paris Stock Exchange, which ended slightly up 0.33%.
Bankrupted during the Covid-19 pandemic, OneWeb was taken over by Indian conglomerate Bharti and the UK government.
Today, Bharti holds 30% of its capital, Eutelsat 22.9%, London and the Japanese Softbank 17.6% each, 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 insurers (7.6%).
The French operator had rejected a few months ago an unsolicited takeover offer by billionaire Patrick Drahi, majority shareholder of the media group Altice.
