Apax acquires Marlink from Airbus

In December 2015, unquote" announced that Apax France had struck an agreement to carve out Airbus's commercial satellite communications arm – formerly known as Vizada.

A few days ago, Apax announced the deal had come to completion, bringing to an end an investment that spanned a decade. When negotiations for the asset first appeared in the media in April, specialised website Agefi valued the subsidiary's turnover at €320m with EBITDA of €45m.

According to reports at the time, Airbus priced the asset around the €450m mark, equivalent to 10x EBITDA. Apax declined to comment on the deal value.

The transaction was completed via funds managed by Apax. As part of the agreement, Airbus has fully offloaded its commercial satcom subsidiary to Apax France but retained the military- and government-related business.

The deal follows Airbus's decision in 2014 to find more suitable owners to develop the commercial satcom business to refocus and concentrate on defence and military assets, and from Marlink's consolidation and rebranding as a stand-alone company for both maritime and enterprise businesses in 2016.

Apax will aim to expand Marlink's range of broadband satcom services and develop tailored products to help digitalise operations on land and at sea. Marlink's current CEO, Erik Ceuppens, remains in his position.

Debt
A $270m unitranche debt was provided jointly by Tikehau Capital and Ares Capital to support the deal, in addition to a super senior revolving credit facility.

Company 
Marlink provides communications services for customers operating in remote environments. It currently services around 200,000 customers worldwide, with 600 employees and 27 offices. It is present in 14 countries across Europe, Asia, the Middle East and North and South America, and has a distribution network of approximately 400 resellers worldwide.

The company serves all maritime sectors and thousands of users operating in environments in the mining, energy and humanitarian sectors that need reliable satcom mobile and fixed connectivity services.

Marlink was created in 2002 when Telenor Satellite Services acquired Comsat Mobile Communications and Sait Communications to create Marlink. In 2007, Marlink acquired FTMSC and Telenor Satellite Services to form Vizada. In 2011, Apax sold Vizada to Astrium Services Business Communications, combining Vizada, Marlink, Vizada Networks, TDCOM and London Satellite Exchange.

People
Apax Partners – Bertrand Pivin (partner).

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