At an historic Extraordinary General Assembly in Paris, the assets and activities of the EUTELSAT intergovernmental organisation were transferred on July 2 into Eutelsat S.A. (societe anonyme), a limited liability company headquartered in Paris with a registered share capital of 1,000,000,000 euros. This establishes Eutelsat on a level playing field for furthering its expansion in the global telecommunications market.

Eutelsat's corporate headquarters. Photo: Eutelsat

Giuliano Berretta, who as Director General of the EUTELSAT Organization steered the privatisation process, was appointed Chairman of the Management Board and CEO of Eutelsat S.A. by the new company's 15-member Supervisory Board. The Supervisory Board, chaired by Jean-Jacques Damlamian, also appointed Jean-Paul Brillaud, Charles Hindson and Volker Steiner to the Management Board. Jean-Paul Brillaud also holds the function of Corporate Development Director and Deputy CEO, Charles Hindson of Finance Director, and Volker Steiner of Commercial Director.

The new corporate structure gives Eutelsat the operational flexibility and streamlined governance for pursuing business opportunities in media, telecommunications and most particularly broadband markets. As a fully commercial enterprise, Eutelsat S.A. now benefits from increased freedom for bringing new products and services to market, for financing its development and greater flexibility for striking strategic alliances and joint ventures.

Said Giuliano Berretta on the formal creation of Eutelsat S.A.: "Eutelsat has embraced change with energy. This is another milestone in our development. Eutelsat S.A. will build on the successes of its past to deliver new value-added services for corporate and consumer markets, as testified by new initiatives such as our OPEN-SKY multimedia service. Our new corporate structure will also facilitate opportunities for external growth. With continued geographic expansion and more innovative and effective end-to-end solutions, Eutelsat will continue to be a major player in the global marketplace."

Eutelsat S.A. has a diversified shareholder base, consisting principally of telecommunications and media companies headquartered in 48 different countries. Larger shareholders include France Telecom (23.1 per cent), Telecom Italia (20.5 per cent), British Telecom (17.5 per cent) and Deutsche Telekom (10.9 per cent).

A separate intergovernmental organisation headed by an Executive Secretary, Birgitta Naeslund of Sweden, will continue to exist in order to monitor that the new company respects basic principles of pan-European coverage, non-discrimination, fair competition and universal service.

Eutelsat S.A. headquartered in Paris is one of the world's leading providers of satellite communications solutions for business and private needs. The company provides television and radio broadcasting, Internet access and multimedia entertainment, IP business solutions, corporate network solutions and professional communications applications in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, South-West Asia and North and South America. From its HOT BIRD and other orbital positions Eutelsat broadcasts 900 TV channels and 560 radio channels to 85 million satellite and cable homes. Eutelsat operates capacity on 22 satellites and owns the 3 rd largest fleet of satellites worldwide. Seven additional satellites are currently in construction.