Eutelsat plans to carve out ground segment infrastructure worth about 790 million euros (US$863 million) and sell most of the teleport service business to a private equity fund.

Eutelsat is in exclusive talks to sell 80 percent of the ground station-as-a-service business — comprising land, buildings, antennas and other passive infrastructure assets — to a fund run by EQT Partners of Sweden. 

According to Eutelsat, the new business would be the world’s largest pure-play, operator-neutral, ground station-as-a-service company.

Baker & McKenzie is acting as lead legal counsel to Eutelsat and Dentons as Canadian advisor.