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Twenty years after its creation, board members of French industrial group Nexeya have agreed to spin-off its space and satellite business in the third quarter of 2019 and name it Hemeria, according to a press release dated 12 April 2019.
The transfer of the Nexeya group’s space activities into the new Hemeria company will allow it to focus its development efforts on the strong growth opportunities offered by the New Space sector in Europe and around the world.
Additionally, the Nexeya board accepted a proposed acquisition of the company’s non-space activities by the European group Hensoldt.
These corporate developments are subject to various French government and EU authorisations as well as to the ongoing information consultation procedure of the Institutions for Occupational Retirement Provisions (IORP) dealing with company pension plans, and should be completed by the beginning of the third quarter of 2019.
Hemeria, wholly owned by Nexeya Group’s holding company, will consolidate all of the company’s space activities, including satellite equipment and nanosatellite manufacturing, as well as certain sovereign defence activities related to French national security. These activities currently represent a turnover of around €36 million and a staff of about 200 people.
Rapid growth in these numbers is expected over the next three years. This growth will be driven in particular by multiple projects related to nano- and microsatellite megaconstellations. Hemeria’s offering of small satellite manufacturing and sub-components and subsystems for larger satellites will allow it to take full advantage of the opportunities generated by the emerging New Space sector.
“We are very pleased with the dynamic of our strategic refocusing,” commented Philippe Gautier Jean-Yves Rivière, CEO of Nexeya, and Jérôme Giraud, Chairman of the Supervisory Board and Managing Director at Nexeya. “It will allow us, on one hand, to accelerate the development of the French nanosatellite sector that we are building with the involvement of all our partners, and on the other hand, to underpin our other activities with a developing European group, whose values and objectives we share.”
