LONDON (Reuters) – Airbus is seeking opportunities to build scale in the defence, space and particularly satellite markets, Chief Executive Guillaume Faury said on Sunday.
Airbus and France's Thales are exploring a merger of some space activities as new competition disrupts the sector, two industry sources said last week.
The sources said the preliminary talks, first reported by La Tribune, were focusing on the companies' overlapping satellite activities.
“We're looking at opportunities to create scale, and that's true in defence, it's true in space and particularly in satellites,” Faury said, ahead of this week's Farnborough Airshow.
“We would be delighted to find ways to create scale in the space environment in Europe in general.”
Airbus and Thales Alenia Space, in which Italy's Leonardo has a 33% stake, are Europe's largest manufacturers of satellites for telecommunications, navigation and surveillance.
Demand for its geostationary satellites is increasingly under pressure as traditional manufacturers face competition from massive constellations of expendable satellites in low-Earth orbit, such as Elon Musk's SpaceX's Starlink network.
Last month, Airbus took a 900 million euro ($980 million) charge on its space services business, adding to the 500 million euro charge last year.
Faury told analysts at the time that the company was “evaluating all strategic options” for its space business, including restructuring, cooperation, a portfolio review and possible merger and acquisition options.
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