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General discussion => Satellite industry news => Topic started by: NewsHound on July 23, 2019, 01:45 PM
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Inmarsat buyer Bidco vows to stay local amid regulatory scrutiny
The Connect Bidco consortium told the British government that for at least three years it would keep Inmarsat’s core network operations center and skilled engineering resources in the country once the merger, expected to close late this year, is complete.
SpaceNews.com
Updated July 23 at 1:22 p.m. Eastern with additional information from the U.K. government.
WASHINGTON — The consortium buying British satellite operator Inmarsat has pledged to keep core functions of the satellite operator in the United Kingdom as regulatory oversight of the $3.3 billion purchase increases.
The Connect Bidco consortium told the British government that for at least three years it would keep Inmarsat’s core network operations center and skilled engineering resources in the country once the merger, expected to close late this year, is complete.
The U.K. government, in a document released July 18 by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, said that it accepted the consortium’s offer to voluntarily make “legally-binding undertakings” about Inmarsat’s location.
News of that commitment came two days after the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority announced it was reviewing the Inmarsat buyout on antitrust grounds. The review, prompted by a voluntary notice from Bidco, could lead the agency to modify or block the merger, though that outcome is not expected.
“It has a vanishingly small chance of delaying this buyout, not least because there is no competition issue created by the action,” Gregory Francis, managing director at the regulatory consulting firm Access Partnership, said by email. “Competition in the markets Inmarsat serves is healthy and getting healthier.”
Bidco and Inmarsat declined to comment on the merger review.
On July 22, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said it would also “intervene” in the merger on national security grounds. The department tasked the CMA with preparing a report by Sept. 17 that assesses national security elements of the merger in addition to its competitive aspects.
Bidco is comprised of two Canadian pension funds, New York-based Warburg Pincus and Apax Partners in London. The consortium had stated in March its intent to keep Inmarsat headquartered in the U.K., but firmed up those intentions more recently to the British government.
Bidco said July 18 that the commitment to keep Inmarsat in the U.K. was “separate from and without prejudice to” the merger review.
SpaceNews.com
Source: Inmarsat buyer Bidco vows to stay local amid regulatory scrutiny (https://spacenews.com/inmarsat-buyer-bidco-vows-to-stay-local-amid-regulatory-scrutiny/)