At €15.5 per share, Abertis Telecom a subsidiary of Abertis, has agreed to buy out
French private equity house Eurazeo is not a seller. It owns a 25.48% stake in Eutelsat and has in the past wanted to force a merger between Eutelsat and Spain’s Hispasat. Eutelsat is also Hispasat’s biggest shareholder with a 27.69% stake.
Abertis plans to finance the deal with a syndicated bridge loan, which is not expected to affect Abertis’s Single A credit ratings from Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings.
Eutelsat has 23 geo-stationary earth-orbit satellites, and controls 30% of the European market and 13% of the global market for satellite communications, including TV and radio.
For the fiscal year ending June 2006, the company’s Ebitda came to €617m on revenues of €791m.