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Astrium Takes Control Of Spot Image

Jul 15, 2008

By Michael Taverna

EADS’s Astrium Services unit has acquired a majority stake in Spot
Image in a move that promises to propel the company to the forefront
of the international space imagery market.

After more than a year of negotiation, Astrium agreed late last week
to acquire most of French space agency CNES’s holding in Spot Image,
giving it an 81%% stake in the Toulouse-based optical imaging
specialist with five subsidiaries and strategic agreements around the
world. Spot Image will be integrated into the Earth Observation Div.
of Astrium Services alongside Infoterra, a German-based radar imaging
specialist with affiliates in France, the U.K., Spain and Hungary.
However, it will remain an independent French company, and CNES will
retain a small golden share.

By gaining control of Spot Image, said Astrium CEO Eric Beranger, EADS
is now in a position to develop an integrated strategy for the full
range of Earth observation services and applicationsalong the entire
geo-information value chain. It will be able to develop and market
combined optical-radar product offerings and, together with Astrium’s
satellite telecommunications and navigation divisions, bundle services
to address new markets. A top priority will be solidifying the
company’s government and defense foothold in the U.S.

Spot Image CEO Herve Buchwalter said the shareholding change will
reinforce the SpotImage’s ability to launch new programs under public
private partnership funding schemes, as Infoterra has done with its
TerraSAR-X and Tandem-X radar satellites. Specifically, the deal will
permit development of a medium-resolution wide swath imager to replace
the Spot 5 spacecraft. Spot 5 has been the bread and butter performer
for Spot Image, providing the majority of its revenues and helping
drive steady sales growth.

Early design of the Spot-5 follow-on, which is currently known under
the code name Astroterra but will eventually be called Spot 6, was
kicked off early this year pending conclusion of the shareholding
agreement.

Astrium officials say CNES will provide no financing for the
spacecraft, suggesting that the PPP arrangement will include some sort
of French government presales guarantee. Taking advantage of progress
in miniaturization, the new spacecraft will use Astrium’s Astrobus 250
imaging satellite bus, designed for satellite significantly smaller
than Spot 5.

Spot Image is already participating in a PPP initiative for a pair of
high-resolution companion spacecraft, Pleiades, to be launched in the
first quarter of 2010 atop a Soyuz booster from Kourou, French Guiana.
Pleaides will offer 70 cm multispectral resolution over a 20 km swath,
making it a perfect complement to Spot 6.

Spot Image also has strategic agreements that give it access to
several other advanced imaging satellites. These include Taiwan’s two-
meter resolution Formsat-2 and Koreas’s Kompsat-2, which has a
resolution of one meter.