Eurely Makes a Further Step Toward Galileo Concession
(Source: Eurely; issued Jan. 25, 2005)
BRUSSELS --- Eurely, the consortium formed by Alcatel, Finmeccanica, AENA and Hispasat, today provided its final proposal for the Galileo Concession. The offer, submitted to the European Commission by Eurely, contains further details and binding commitments to manage the services of the new satellite based European navigation system, in addition to the original proposal of September 2004.
The Eurely proposal exceeds the European Commission and ESA requirements for the systems, due to the unrivalled competence and strengths of all its international partners in satellite services. The Eurely business plan is already today fully funded, as equity and other financing, on a non recourse basis, are over-subscribed.
Eurely's unmatched industrial competence is based on the strong and diverse experience developed by the partners in all space related manufacturing, operations and services as well as applications domains. Eurely still continues to attract major European companies eager to cooperate on an exclusive basis to develop applications in the domain of their expertise. More than 40 companies from a wide variety of business sectors, such as telecommunications, civil works and road management, railways and defence have joined Eurely in the meantime.
Through these partnerships and the connected capabilities, Eurely is in the unique position to cover all relevant sectors of the future markets for Galileo, such as location based services which are already under development, toll systems, air navigation, emergency applications, transportation safety systems and more.
Furthermore, the Eurely consortium can build on the unique experience and expertise in high precision navigation systems acquired through its EGNOS activities under the leadership of Alcatel Space as prime contractor to ESA. Today the EGNOS system is utilizing existing GPS signals and is built to increase the integrity and to improve continuity, accuracy as well as the reliability of those signals for transportation applications. EGNOS is an important prerequisite in building and testing value add services already today and therefore provides a head-start to Eurely in developing applications for Galileo.
A strong endorsement of the capabilities of the members of Eurely is the most recent achievement in the history of space: the success of the Cassini-Huygens mission with the landing and the operation of the Huygens probe on TITAN which exceeded the expectations of ESA and Europe. As Alcatel Space was the prime contractor of Huygens and Alenia Spazio has developed some of the most critical and innovative systems in the Cassini spacecraft, Eurely is especially proud to include such companies that are part of this European success.
Through its partners and expertise the Eurely Consortium is uniquely positioned and strongly committed to be "the" concessionaire to manage the construction and operations of Galileo for Europe.
BACKGROUND NOTES: EURELY FOUNDERS
--AENA: Aena is a Public Business Entity entrusted with the planning, development, building, installation, operation and managing of the 44(+3) Spanish civil airports and the air navigation system for all airspace under Spanish responsibility, with 5 Area Control Centres covering 4 Flight Information Regions (FIR/UIR). Aena also manages 15 airports in Central and South America.
--ALCATEL: Alcatel is a world-wide company, incorporated in France, leader in Communications and Broadband solutions for Telecommunication Services Providers, as well as Transports, Governmental, Health, Education and Oil & Gas. With sales of Euro12.5Bn in 2003, Alcatel operates in over 130 countries. Alcatel Space is also the Prime Contractor of EGNOS, the precursor to the Galileo system.
-- FINMECCANICA: Finmeccanica is the Italian leader in high technology and plays key roles in every main programme and project in the aerospace and defence sectors, contributing its own exclusive design, development and production competencies. Aerospace and defence activities accounted for 75% of Euro 8.6Bn, consolidated Group turnover in 2003.
--HISPASAT: Hispasat is a Spanish group of companies that started in 1989 as satellite system operator for commercial and governmental/military communication services, provision of engineering solutions and new advanced projects. HISPASAT has proven experience in satellite engineering, procurement, launch, testing and operations, with satellite ground control and monitoring premises in Spain, Brazil, Argentina and Mexico as well as appropriate knowledge in Security. HISPASAT has been cleared by the Spanish Ministry of Defence (SMOD) since 1990. (ends)
iNavSat Consortium Delivers Final Offer to Galileo Concession
(Source: Thales; issued Jan. 25, 2005)
BRUSSELS, Belgium --- The iNavSat consortium today delivered its final offer to the Galileo Joint Undertaking (GJU) to become the Galileo concessionaire, deploying the Galileo satellite constellation, integrating EGNOS and operating all subsequent services. The consortium was chosen in October as one of the two final bidders.
The preferred bidder is expected to be announced in February 2005.
The iNavSat offer is based on a through technical due diligence in the light of user and market demands, which are complemented by the background and know-how of over 40 international iNavSat partners. They have contributed valuable experience in their given fields of expertise (e.g. automotive, telecommunication, information technologies, Safety of Life applications) to the successful commercial implementation of Galileo.
The iNavSat financial proposal has been approved by 8 European leading banks, with some willing to contribute equity to the iNavSat investment. The iNavSat offer minimises public sector contribution over the 20 year concession period.
The iNavSat risk mitigation and insurance scheme, which has been approved by leading insurance companies, secures sustainability of the Galileo Programme over the concession period The iNavSat consortium will take full responsibility for system deployment, operation and performance after completion of the in-orbit-validation phase.
The iNavSat consortium was founded by EADS Space, Inmarsat Ventures and the Thales Group, who are the respective European market leaders in the fields of aerospace, mobile satellite communications and navigation-based products and services. Together they bring an unmatched array of experiences and skills to the Galileo Programme.
Galileo is a European Union project to develop a new advanced satellite navigation system, more advanced than existing satellite navigation systems. The winning concessionaire is expected to take the lead in arranging private financing of the deployment and operational phases of Galileo, and ultimately would become the Galileo Operating Company.
The Galileo programme marks a clear step forward for Europe. It is the first major European-level infrastructure procurement programme with a global dimension. It is also the first major Public Private Partnership (PPP) at a multinational level and will bring numerous benefits to Europe; notably the opportunity to demonstrate how government and industry can cooperate to achieve both market and policy success.
EADS SPACE Services is committed to providing and developing satellite services in the area of telecommunications and navigation. EADS SPACE Services is a wholly owned subsidiary of EADS SPACE, which is dedicated to providing civil and defence space systems. In 2003, EADS SPACE had a turnover of €2.4 billion and 12,000 employees in France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain. EADS is a global leader in aerospace, defence and related services. In 2003, EADS generated revenues of € 30.1 billion and employed a workforce of more than 100,000.
Inmarsat Ventures Ltd is a leading provider of global mobile satellite communications services. Its services include voice, fax, intranet and internet access and other data services used by multinational corporations, government agencies, media and international aid organisations and other enterprise level users in the maritime, land and aeronautical sectors.
Thales is an international electronics and systems group, serving defence, aerospace, services and security markets. The group employs 61,500 people worldwide and generated revenues of 10.6 billion in 2003. Thales has been pioneering in satellite navigation technology and is the only European company with end-to-end satellite navigation capability, from signals to products, to systems and services delivery.
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