Bharti will invest an additional $500 million (over Rs 3,700 crore) into OneWeb to become the largest shareholder in the satellite communications company that billionaire Sunil Mittal-run Bharti Group along with the UK government had rescued from bankruptcy last year.

The investment is a result of exercise of a ‘call option’ by Bharti. On completion of the transaction and with Eutelsat’s $550 million investment, Bharti will hold 38.6 per cent. The UK government, Eutelsat and SoftBank will each own 19.3 per cent, OneWeb said in a statement.

The transaction is expected to be completed in the second half of 2021, subject to regulatory approval.

“OneWeb, the global low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite communications company, has secured further fundraising on the anniversary of the successful bid by the UK government and Bharti Global (Bharti) to purchase OneWeb from US Chapter 11 to bring its total funding to $2.4 billion,” OneWeb said.