On completion of the Call Option and with Eutelsat’s $550m investment, Bharti will hold 38.6 per cent stake in the company
Bharti-backed satellite communications company OneWeb has secured further funding on the anniversary of the successful bid by the UK Government and Bharti Global to purchase OneWeb from US Chapter 11 to bring its total funding to $2.4 billion. OneWeb has completed its transformation with the exercise of a Call Option by Bharti to invest an additional $500m into the company, the company said in a release.
This announcement comes as OneWeb prepares for its eighth launch on July 1, delivering a Arctic region coverage down to 50 degrees latitude.
The Call Option is expected to be completed in the second half of 2021, subject to regulatory approvals, said the company.
On completion of the Call Option and with Eutelsat’s $550m investment, Bharti will hold 38.6 per cent stake in the company. The UK Government, Eutelsat and Softbank will each own 19.3 per cent. The company added that the final shareholding structure may alter to the extent a member of the shareholders’ group chooses to exercise a part of this call option.
On completion, OneWeb will have secured $2.4bn of equity investment, with no issued debt.
Shravin Mittal, Managing Director of Bharti Global, said, “In just a year and during a global pandemic, together we have transformed OneWeb, bringing the operation back to full-scale. With this round of financing, we complete the funding requirements. We will continue to work alongside our partner shareholders, UK Government, Softbank and Eutelsat, to realise this unique opportunity.”
Neil Masterson, CEO of OneWeb, said, “We have significantly lower entry cost of any LEO. We benefit from $3.4bn of pre-Chapter 11 investment by the original shareholders, making new OneWeb a three-times lower cost Constellation. With the forthcoming launch we will have completed 40 per cent of our Network. We are intently focused on execution and just ten more launches will enable us to deliver global coverage.”
