Herbert Smith Freehills advises OneWeb on investment from Hanwha Systems

Leading international law firm Herbert Smith Freehills has advised OneWeb, Bharti Global and the UK Government (through the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) on a US$300m investment in OneWeb from Hanwha, the South Korean Fortune 500, global technology and manufacturing company.

This investment brings OneWeb’s total equity investment since November 2020 to US$2.7 billion with no debt issuance. The investment is expected to be completed in the first half of 2022, subject to regulatory approvals.

The Herbert Smith Freehills team was led by OneWeb relationship partners Alan Montgomery and Gavin Davies and senior associates Siddhartha Shukla and Martyn Jones, with support from Savy Jajmann and Sophie Lundsberg.  Specialist advice was provided by David Coulling (TMT), Veronica Roberts and Max Kaufmann (Regulatory), and Isaac Zailer (Tax).

Alan Montgomery commented: “It has been a tremendous privilege to work with OneWeb, Bharti, Her Majesty’s Government, OneWeb, and Hanwha on this significant investment and also to continue to be part of the OneWeb story.”

Herbert Smith Freehills had also advised OneWeb on investments by Softbank and Hughes (see here), Eutelsat (see here), and had earlier advised Bharti and its consortium with the UK Government on the acquisition of OneWeb (see here).