China wanted to buy OneWeb
July 31, 2023
By Chris Forrester
There was reportedly once an attempted takeover of OneWeb by Chinese interests. An article in the Sunday Telegraph says that the UK’s MI5 security service investigated the China involvement, and this prompted the UK government to step in and buy a major stake in OneWeb.
There was also a further complication in that OneWeb is being merged with Paris-based Eutelsat, which already has a major Chinese shareholder.
OneWeb operates 600 low Earth orbiting satellites providing broadband connectivity around the planet.
The UK government bought a £400 million stake in OneWeb as it emerged from bankruptcy. The purchase in OneWeb also gives the UK a ‘golden share’ and thus a strong influence in what happens to the business.
The newspaper claims that a report from the UK’s GCHQ (the UK government’s intelligence, security and cyber agency) as well as the UK’s parliamentary Intelligence & Security Committee, investigated the Chinese interests.
Chinese bidders, including the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, were considering investment in OneWeb.
However, OneWeb is now on the verge of being acquired and merged into Eutelsat. The acquisition is expected to formally close by the end of September.
China is already a shareholder in Eutelsat with China Investment Corporation (CIC), described as a sovereign wealth fund which manages part of the People’s Republic of China’s foreign exchange reserves. CIC is frequently said to be a “passive” investor in Eutelsat and does not influence board decisions.
The Chinese stake in Eutelsat was engineered when Michel Rosen was CEO at Eutelsat in 2012. CIC bought a 7 per cent stake from Spanish infrastructure company Abertis.