Thales, Airbus, Leonardo eye initial agreement on 10 billion

By Amy-Jo Crowley, Mathieu Rosemain and Tim Hepher

LONDON/PARIS/ROME (Reuters) – Europe’s aerospace groups Leonardo, Thales and Airbus have redoubled efforts to combine their satellite businesses into a 10 billion-euro ($11.7 billion), French-headquartered joint venture and are working towards hammering out an initial agreement in coming weeks, sources close to the matter said.

Under “Project Bromo,” the three companies plan to set up a satellite manufacturing company to compete with rivals from China and the U.S., including Elon Musk’s Starlink.

Talks have regained momentum after a rough period in the summer when the parties could not agree on governance and valuation, stalling an agreement, three sources said. The talks looked at risk of collapsing, according to another source.

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