Eutelsat+OneWeb to list in London
March 28, 2023
By Chris Forrester
Sunil Bharti Mittal, the Indian billionaire telecoms tycoon and executive chairman of OneWeb, which is in the process of merging with Paris-based Eutelsat, said a secondary listing in London was a plan “we will deliver”.
“The benefit is that you have a varied investor base to address to, but this is more a requirement of the UK while we were negotiating with Eutelsat to have a listing here because in the end, every state wants to have more and more listings in their own country,” he said.
Eutelsat and OneWeb announced their merger plan last July. Since the announcement, Eutelsat’s Paris Bourse stock price has crashed from €10.43 to just €5.93. Over the 12 months, its share price has fallen 39 per cent, and market enthusiasm for the merger has softened considerably.
The OneWeb-Eutelsat deal remains subject to the usual regulatory clearances, but is expected to complete in early summer ahead of a secondary listing in London possibly before the end of the year, Mittal added.
Mittal said Eutelsat was only pursuing a secondary listing in London because of the UK government’s request. “So, let’s see, will we get more investors, a different set of investors in the UK, maybe even retail investors are excited about investing in this?”
Mittal admitted that OneWeb was playing “catch-up” with Starlink but there was space in the market for both to sell capacity without being in conflict. “Starlink is a serious player in this market. They have launched thousands of satellites and are providing services in most parts of the world.”
The main backers of the OneWeb merger include Mittal’s Bharti Enterprises, the UK government, Eutelsat itself, South Korea’s Hanwha and Japan’s SoftBank.