Bharti-backed Eutelsat Group lists on London Stock Exchange
completed its merger move with UK-headquartered satellite operator OneWeb in which domestic conglomerate Bharti Enterprises is a stakeholder. Shares of the newly-formed Eutelsat Group, in which OneWeb holds a 50% stake, were listed on the LSE at 8 AM GMT on Friday.
On Thursday, Eutelsat Group confirmed that domestic telecom and industrial conglomerate, Bharti Enterprises, will be its largest single shareholder—holding 21.2% of the newly formed entity. Sunil Bharti Mittal, founder and chairman of Bharti Enterprises, will serve as co-chairperson of Eutelsat Group, while Shravin Bharti Mittal was appointed as a director on Eutelsat’s board.
Akhil Gupta, already appointed as a director on OneWeb’s board, will continue in his position. OneWeb, meanwhile, will remain headquartered in London—while Eutelsat will remain in Paris.
The combined entity claimed to be the first satellite services firm that has both geostationary earth orbit (GEO) and low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites in its offering, with 37 GEO satellites under Eutelsat ownership, and over 600 satellites as part of OneWeb’s LEO ownership. This is in contrast to most satellite operators and service providers, such as Elon Musk-backed Starlink which uses only LEO satellites, Reliance Jio Infocomm’s partnership with Luxembourg-based SES which uses only GEO satellites, and other such entities.
GEO satellites are placed far higher up in orbit in comparison with LEO satellites. While GEOs offer high bandwidth, LEO satellite constellations typically offer significantly lower latencies than the latter—and are therefore touted to offer better options for augmenting remote on-ground networks, as well as in industrial applications such as aviation and maritime communications.
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