Softbank Group Capital to sell some of its rights over Eutelsat share issue (updated)

Eutelsat Communications SA

02/12/2025 18:48

Adds more detail and background from paragraph 1 onwards

Dec 2 (Reuters) - Softbank Group Capital 9984.T is selling 36 million rights in Eutelsat, which is seen as a European rival to Space X's Starlink and last month announced a rights issue, said a bookrunner involved in the process.

The unit, part of Tokyo-listed Softbank Group Corp, is selling the rights to raise cash that will be used to help fund the exercise of the remainder of its rights, according to a term sheet seen by Reuters.

The 36 million rights offering is equivalent to around 26 million shares in Eutelsat, nearly half of Softbank Group Capital's current stake of around 49.6 million shares in Eutelsat.

On November 25, Eutelsat launched a 670 million euros ($778 million) rights issue, which was part of a broader 1.5 billion euros capital-raising plan.

Eutelsat's capital-injection is being led by the French government.

It is aimed at helping finance new satellites for its Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellation, OneWeb, which is currently the only LEO network in the world besides Elon Musk's Starlink.

($1 = 0.8616 euros)

 (Reporting by Anousha Sakoui. Editing by Mark Potter)

 ((anousha.sakoui@thomsonreuters.com.))