Eutelsat and the main shareholders of OneWeb including the UK government, Bharti Airtel and Softbank had signed the final combination agreement yesterday.
“Completion of the transaction remains subject to the customary conditions precedent, in particular the approval by the relevant regulatory authorities,” Eutelsat said in a statement.
“Given the currently expected timetable for review by these authorities, the Extraordinary General Meeting of Eutelsat shareholders called to approve the transaction is now expected to be held in the second or third quarter of 2023.
“This possible change from the initially announced timetable should have no significant impact on the combined entity's financial outlook released in connection with the proposed combination.”
Eutelsat’s CEO Eva Berneke and its chairman Dominique D’Hinnin will be in charge of the combined satellite company when it takes over OneWeb by the end of June 2023, the companies said in July.
The deal will ease cashflow issues that OneWeb had, it had originally planned to offer global service by late 2021, but delays and extra costs mean it had only two-thirds of its fleets in operation in July, with the rest not likely to be in service until 2023.
Eutelsat announced earlier this year that it had installed former EchoStar executive Richard Mortellaro as president and CEO of Eutelsat America.
