Private equity firm EQT has announced that its EQT Infrastructure VI fund has entered into exclusive negotiations to acquire a majority stake in the ground station infrastructure business of Eutelsat Group, a global leader in satellite communications.
EQT would own 80% of the capital, while Eutelsat Group would remain committed as long-term shareholder, anchor tenant and partner of the new company with a 20% holding.
Eutelsat’s ground station business is a global infrastructure platform with a large, existing footprint of satellite ground stations and significant investment potential. Satellite ground stations enable the transmission of data between the Earth and orbiting satellites, helping to enable connectivity to billions of people outside of coverage for fixed and mobile connectivity solutions.
The continued deployment of satellites is expected to render strong demand for existing and new ground station infrastructure over the coming decade.
In this case the transaction will carve out passive assets, including land, buildings, support infrastructure, antennas and connectivity circuits, to form a new company.
Eutelsat would then enter into a long-term framework master service agreement (MSA) with the ground station business and become the anchor tenant. The new entity, according to news service Via Satellite, would then be an operator-neutral ground station as a service company. It would continue to supply ground service for Eutelsat.
EQT meanwhile has indicated that it is willing to put continued investment into upgrading and building new sites, notably for low Earth orbit (LEO) antennas, as well as pursuit of inorganic growth opportunities across the vast and fragmented global ground station market. EQT says it identified satellite ground stations as an attractive digital infrastructure vertical several years ago.
The transaction is expected to close in Q1 2026.
Eutelsat operates a network of more than 70 teleports, located in France, Italy, Madeira, and Mexico.
