An MDA satellite production facility in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Que.Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press
MDA Space Ltd. has entered into an agreement to acquire a 70-per-cent stake in the French earth observation company Collecte Localisation Satellites for roughly $920-million in cash, and is issuing shares to raise $1-billion in aggregate gross proceeds to help fund the deal.
CLS, headquartered in Toulouse, France, was founded in 1986 as a subsidiary of the French space agency, the Centre National d’Études Spatiales, and provides a range of space-based data analytics services. The company employs 1,200 people and operates in 150 countries, according to a news release issued Wednesday by MDA, which is based in Brampton, Ont.
The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of 2026 or early 2027, subject to regulatory approvals and consultation with CLS employee representation bodies in accordance with French law.
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CLS is expected to generate around $465-million in revenue in 2026, the company said. This is equivalent to approximately 29 per cent of the space technology vendor’s 2025 revenue of $1.6-billion.
MDA is issuing 20 million common shares at a price of US$35.60 each. The company’s shares were trading at US$38.67 on the New York Stock Exchange as of market close Wednesday, but fell to around the issue price of the new shares in after-market trading. The offering is expected to close on or about July 14, subject to customary closing conditions, the company said.
The new stock is being issued through a bought deal, which means the syndicate of banks underwriting the share sale have committed to buying the entire block from MDA before reselling them to investors.
The company currently has about 139 million shares outstanding, meaning the new issue would represent a roughly 14-per-cent increase.
In the release, MDA said the deal will build on its investments in space observation, ground stations for satellites and data analytics, complementing CLS’s existing satellite-based services. Chief executive officer Mike Greenley said in the release that the deal will “create a growing, profitable, highly competitive and vertically integrated geospatial services business.”
Stéphanie Limouzin, CLS’s CEO, said in the release that joining forces with MDA Space represents “a unique opportunity to accelerate our development, expand the global reach of our solutions and strengthen our innovation capabilities.”
The French space agency will retain the remaining 30-per-cent interest in CLS.