OneWeb, the global Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite communications company, has secured further fundraising on the anniversary of the successful bid by the U.K. Government and Bharti Global (Bharti) to purchase OneWeb from U.S. Chapter 11, to bring its total funding to US$2.4 billion. OneWeb has completed its transformation with the exercise of a call option by Bharti to invest an additional US$500 million into the company.
This latest announcement comes as OneWeb prepares for its eighth launch on July 1, delivering highly anticipated and strategically valuable Arctic region coverage down to 50 degrees latitude.
The call option is expected to be completed in the second half of 2021, subject to regulatory approvals. On completion of the call option and with Eutelsat’s US$550 million investment, Bharti will hold 38.6%. The U.K. Government, Eutelsat, and Softbank will each own 19.3%.
The final shareholding structure may alter to the extent a member of the shareholders’ group chooses to exercise a part of this call option. On completion, OneWeb will have secured US$2.4 billion of equity investment, with no issued debt.
