Eutelsat's shares jump after OneWeb deal completed

(Reuters) -French satellite company Eutelsat, the world's third-biggest satellite operator by revenue, said on Thursday it had completed the all-share merger with Britain's OneWeb to become Eutelsat Group, sending its shares as much as 6% higher.

The new entity will remain headquartered and listed in Paris, and has also applied for listing on the London Stock Exchange.

Eutelsat said the new company's revenue is expected grow at a double-digit compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the medium and long-term to reach around 2 billion euros ($2.11 bln).

It said capital expenditure after the merger is estimated at around 725-875 million euros per annum between 2024 and 2030.

The deal, initially announced in July 2022, was meant to create a new challenger in the satellite internet market to the likes of Elon Musk-owned SpaceX's Starlink and Amazon's Project Kuiper.

Eutelsat hopes to tap into the growth of real-time video gaming and rising demand for fast internet connections from companies.

Eutelsat shares rose as much as 6% on the announcement. They were 2.8% higher at 1300 GMT.

Thomas Coudry, an analyst at Bryan Garnier, however, said the share move was a "negligible increase compared with the losses taken since the merger was announced."

The stock has lost around 49.4%, or around 5 euros, since the merger's initial announcement in July 2022.

"The merger is painful for minority shareholders, because the investments needed in OneWeb will consume a lot of cash flow over in the long term with an uncertain (return on investment)," said Coudry.

Eutelsat's Eva Berneke and Dominique D'Hinnin will stay on as chief executive and chairman respectively.

(Reporting by PierreJohn Felcenloben in Gdansk; Editing by Milla Nissi, Jane Merriman and Susan Fenton)