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Space companies Airbus, Leonardo and Thales have said they have reached a preliminary agreement to combine their space activities to create the European space company that Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has envisioned.
Announcing the creation of a major European player in the space race, the companies said they would combine the production of their satellites and space systems into a €6.5 billion business that will employ around 25,000 people across Europe.
The three-way deal aims to create a worthy competitor to Elon Musk's SpaceX, particularly in the race for low-Earth orbit satellites that power his Starlink internet service. SpaceX's projected revenue by 2025 is about $15 billion.
The deal, originally called the Bromo Project after a volcano in Indonesia, has been long overdue. Talks between the three companies were complicated by the involvement of five governments as shareholders or partners. And winning antitrust approval was always going to be a difficult task.
France, Italy, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom will all have interests in the new company, which will be headquartered in Toulouse in southern France, but will be divided into five different legal entities to preserve sovereign interests. The governance structure mirrors that of European missile manufacturer MDBA.
Airbus, the European aerospace giant, will own 35 percent of the shares, while Italy’s Leonardo and France’s Thales will each own 32.5 percent. There will be a single CEO and managing directors who have yet to be named for each country, an Airbus spokesperson told POLITICO.
The obstacle to union
The union is seeking a green light from the Commission's competition directorate, which will have to weigh the tension between its current merger review regulation and von der Leyen's desire to choose European winners.
The joint venture would compete with foreign players in commercial telecommunications satellites. However, it would face little competition for military and public procurement tenders in the EU, for example with the European Space Agency (ESA). These are usually limited to domestic bidders./ Politico
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