MILANO – Weight loss in the home Leonardo. The American subsidiary Leonardo Drs signed an agreement for the sale of Global Enterprise Solutions (GES) to the group HIS, based in luxembourg, for an amount equal to 450 million dollars. The announcement of the operation came with a note from both groups which also explains that the closing of the operation, subject to authorizations, is scheduled for the second half of 2022. The sale of GES, whose communications business satellite is considered by Leonardo to be non-essential, it allows the company to raise cash and reduce debt, a necessary operation after the acquisition of a 25.1% stake in the German defense sensor company Hensoldt, costing 606 million euros.
GES, the release explains, “is the largest commercial satellite communications provider to the US government and offers mission-critical satellite communications and world-class security solutions to customers around the world.” Once the transaction is complete, SES is expected to merge GES into its SES Government Solution, a subsidiary of the group, creating, he explained, “a scalable solutions provider serving the critical connectivity needs of the US government.” With this integration, the company expects to double its revenues as a supplier with an increase of approximately $ 40 million in EBITDA and annual synergies of 25 million.
For over 20 years – highlights the acquiring company, listed on the Paris Stock Exchange – Global Enterprise Solutions has been supporting customized end-to-end satellite communication solutions for land, sea and air operations for the United States government. SES is a leading provider of government services with over 250 million expected annual revenues, longstanding relationships with many key agencies and experience in providing integrated satellite-to-terrestrial solutions, particularly in enterprise IT management and cybersecurity.
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“The sale of the Ges business – he commented Alessandro Profumo, CEO of Leonardo – is a further step forward in the execution of the Industrial Plan: we are optimizing our portfolio and continuing to focus on the core business. The operation announced today also confirms the commitment to achieve our objectives, in line with the Guidance 2022 “. Leonardo confirmed the guidance of net debt of 3.1 billion euros at group level at the end of 2022 and according to Banca Imi analysts the price achieved for GES is higher than expected.
After the acquisition of the German Hensoldt, Leonardo found himself in the need to raise resources, also considering the postponement of the listing of the American subsidiary Drs. “We continue to monitor the market, it is not a matter of one or two weeks, we will continue to monitor but there is no news on our part in this perspective”, said the CEO Profumo at the presentation of the accounts. The sale of GES represents an alternative to the IPO of Drs, but does not exclude other sale operations. On the table there is always the sale of Oto Melara-Wassthe defense systems business unit.