Inmarsat set to win green light over $3.4bn private buyout
A blockbuster buyout of British satellite giant Inmarsat looks set to go ahead after clearing a major hurdle this evening.
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Inmarsat and its buyers have proposed a series of remedies, such as a pledge to keep the firm in the UK for several years as well as adequate security controls on sensitive information.
The deal came under the glare of both the government and Britain’s competition watchdog this summer after being announced in March.
However, today the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said in a statement that it “does not believe that it is or may be case that the creation of the merger situation may be expected to result in a substantial lessening of competition (SLC) within a market or markets in the UK for goods or services.”
The Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) agreed that if the draft undertakings agreed between the culture secretary and the consortium are implemented – then the undertakings are considered an appropriate mitigation to the government national security concerns that it has identified.
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Global buyout groups Apax Partners and Warburg Pincus are part of the consortium that is now set to take the country’s largest satellite group private roughly 15 years after it first went public.
A final consultation on the deal is scheduled to conclude 24 October.