Aim-traded BigBlu Broadband (BBB:99p), a provider of alternative superfast satellite, fixed wireless and 4G/5G broadband products, is crystallising the value created in its European satellite operations, deleveraging the balance sheet and recycling some of the cash proceeds raised into its higher-growth activities.
Subject to approval by BigBlu’s shareholders at the end of August, Eutelsat (NYSE /Euronext: ETL), one of the world's leading satellite operators, will acquire the group’s UK and European satellite broadband businesses for £37.8m – a 50 per cent premium to the prices paid by BigBlu – and assume £13.9m of working capital creditors. The total consideration paid equates to an exit multiple of 9.2 times cash profits. After certain adjustments, BigBlu has net cash of £6m (10p a share).
Importantly, the disposal should enable BigBlu to deliver accelerated returns from its remaining businesses: Quickline, the largest rural fixed wireless broadband provider in the UK; SkyMesh, a leading Australian satellite broadband provider with more than 40,000 customers and one targeting 10,000 new accounts per year through organic growth; and a Nordic satellite and fixed wireless broadband business that aims to expand its geographic footprint into Sweden and Finland.