Bharti Space To Invest Additional INR 1,204 Cr In Eutelsat

Bharti Enterprises’ space arm, Bharti Space Limited, will reportedly invest an additional €120 Mn (nearly INR 1,204 Cr) in French satellite group Eutelsat. 

According to Livemint, the latest investment will be in addition to the €30 Mn (INR 313 Cr) that Bharti Space committed to Eutelsat last month through a reserve capital increase. The infusion will reportedly be part of Eutelsat’s broader €1.5 Bn (over INR 15,000 Cr) rights issue.

The deal is likely to be completed by the end of this year. Following this, Bharti Space’s shareholding in the French satcom operator will decline to 17.88% from 24.09% currently. Post this, the French government will become the largest shareholder in the satcom company, displacing the Indian conglomerate.

This comes nearly a month after Eutelsat announced that it was raising capital of €1.35 Bn (around INR 11,250 Cr) through a mix of a reserve capital increase worth €716 Mn (INR 6,865 Cr) and a rights issue of €634 Mn (INR 6,330 Cr).

On Thursday (July 10), the French company announced that it would increase the size of the round to €1.5 Bn after the UK government committed to joining the latest fundraise. The round will now include a component of €828 Mn (around INR 8,304 Cr) through reserve capital increase and a rights issue of €672 Mn (around INR 6,739 Cr).

It is pertinent to note that Eutelsat is central to Bharti Enterprises’ satcom ambitions in India.

Bharti Enterprises became the biggest shareholder in Eutelsat with a 21.2% share after the merger of Eutelsat with Bharti Enterprises and the UK government-backed OneWeb in 2023. The combined entity was renamed as Eutelsat OneWeb.

Leveraging Eutelsat OneWeb’s satellite constellation, Bharti Enterprises plans to roll out satcom services in the country. The satcom company operates more than 600 satellites and the world’s second-largest constellation of low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites. Its bigger rival Starlink, however, has 6,000 satellites in its kitty. 

The fundraise comes amid heightened competition in the homegrown satcom space. Recently, Starlink crossed the final regulatory hurdle after IN-SPACe granted the Elon Musk-led company the authorisation to roll out satcom services in the country. In May, the telecom department (DoT) also granted the company a key licence to operate satellite-based internet services in India.

On the other hand, Reliance-backed Jio Platforms has tied up with Luxembourg-based SES to offer satcom services in the country. So far, only Eutelsat OneWeb, Jio SES and Starlink have received the Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite (GMPCS) licence from DoT.

Then, there are giants like Amazon Kuiper and Apple vendor Globalstar that have also filed applications to acquire satcom licences in the country. Joining the bandwagon, Vodafone Idea (Vi) last month also announced a partnership with US-based AST SpaceMobile to launch direct-to-device satcom services in the country. 

On the regulatory front, the Centre is targeting the “fastest rollout” of the satcom network in the world. As part of this, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has forwarded its recommendations on norms for satcom spectrum. The Union government is said to be vetting the policy and plans to roll out the norms in this regard soon.