The announcement comes after a proposed merger between the two satellite companies was scrapped in June 2023.
At the time, sources from SES told Bloomberg that Intelsat had walked away from the deal.
The revived deal will bring together the two operators, who have a combined gross contract backlog of €9 billion.
Intelsat said the deal would create €2.4 billion of synergies, representative of 85% of the equity consideration. 70% of these synergies will be executed in the first three years after the close of the transaction, which is expected in the second half of 2025.
The tie up expands SES’s multi-orbit offering, coming at a time when legacy satellite providers are looking to diversify from LEO constellations such as SpaceX’s Starlink and Amazon’s Project Kuiper.
“This transaction expands our multi-orbit space network, spectrum portfolio, ground infrastructure around the world, go-to-market capabilities, managed service solutions, and financial profile,” said Adel Al-Saleh, CEO of SES.
“Going forward, customers will benefit from a more competitive portfolio of solutions with end-to-end offerings in valuable Government and Mobility segments, combined with value-added, efficient, and reliable offerings for Fixed Data and Media customers,” he added.
The combined SES will continue to be headquartered and domiciled in Luxembourg, while maintaining significant presence in the US, notably in the greater Washington, DC area.
SES and Intelsat will operate a combined fleet of more than 100 Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) and 26 Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellites.
SES says combining both sets of assets will allow them to benefit from enhanced coverage, greater network resiliency, complementary spectrum rights and improved service delivery utilising an expanded network of ground segment assets.
By the end of 2026, 8 new GEO (including 6 software-defined) satellites and 7 new MEO (O3b mPOWER) satellites are expected to be launched adding further redundancy and additional growth capacity.
“By combining our financial strength and world-class team with that of SES, we create a more competitive, growth-oriented solutions provider in an industry going through disruptive change,” said David Wajsgras, CEO of Intelsat.
