- Bharti’s Investment: Committed ₹313 crore (part of a total commitment of 150$ million or ₹1,204 crore) in Eutelsat’s capital raise of 1.5$ billion.
- Global Context: This is a major move in the global satellite internet competition, primarily involving Eutelsat-OneWeb (partially owned by Bharti) and Starlink.
- Impact on Eutelsat:
- The capital raise is for debt reduction and scaling up the satellite constellations.
- The French government becomes the largest shareholder (30%), ensuring a sovereign European space network.
- Bharti’s stake will dilute (from 24% to 18%) but remains the second-largest non-governmental shareholder.
- Hybrid Fleet Strategy: Eutelsat (following the merger with OneWeb) is building a hybrid satellite fleet combining:
- LEO Satellites: Over 600+ Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites (low latency, high capacity).
- GEO Satellites: Geostationary Orbit (GEO) satellites (wide coverage, broadcasting).
- India Focus: Bharti retains investment in both:
- Eutelsat-OneWeb: Focused mainly on enterprise, defence, and government clients in India.
- Starlink: Bharti Airtel has a distribution partnership with Starlink to bring its LEO services to the Indian retail market.
This dual strategy allows the Bharti Group to hedge its bets and cover both the enterprise and consumer segments of the fast-growing Indian satcom market.