GMV Innovating Solutions Limited has signed a merger agreement with Nottingham Scientific Limited (NSL) — GMV trades in the aerospace, defense, ICT and intelligent-transportation-systems markets, while NSL is a UK leader in satellite navigation and critical applications. After the agreement, GMV becomes sole shareholder of NSL and establishes the company GMV NSL, to be integrated seamlessly into GMV’s set of companies.
In 2013, as part of its international expansion, GMV rolled out a business development strategy in the UK. This involved setting up a new company, which came on stream in late 2014 to join the suite of companies and offices in Spain, USA, Germany, France, Poland, Portugal, Romania, The Netherlands, Malaysia and Colombia.
Working from its Harwell innovation center in Oxfordshire, GMV’s main UK business is Earth Observation (EO), space debris tracking, mission planning, flight dynamics, navigation, autonomy and robotics. The firm’s principal clients include the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Commission (EC), as well as UK’s space agency (UKSA), the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), Innovate UK, ASUK, Satellite applications Catapult and the Science Technology Facility Council (STFC).
Established in 1998, NSL is a UK-based SME specializing in satellite navigation and critical applications. NSL offers GNSS-based services, systems, solutions and intellectual property, helping to ensure that navigation and positioning are precise and reliable, secure and protected, resistant and robust. NSL’s major clients include UK Space Agency, ESA, UK Government departments, QinetiQ, Inmarsat, and the European Commission.
GMV NSL, 80-strong, will be integrated into GMV’s set of companies, which closed 2019 with a staff of 2,176 and a turnover of more than 236 million euros. GMV NSL will tap into the opportunities offered by the UK market, especially the space market, in satellite navigation and in critical applications as well as in EO, telecommunications and new technologies, with the overarching aim of winning the pole position in Britain’s space sector.
Executive Comments
Jesús B. Serrano, GMV’s CEO, said, “This merger will enable the resultant firm to tap into significant commercial, technological and operational synergies, boosting GMV NSL’s rate of growth and winning it a place in the space programs of both the UK and Europe as a whole.”
Mark Dumville, Co-founder and Director of NSL, added, “In our different ways, GMV and NSL are regarded as world leading space companies and this agreement will expand our capabilities and capacity enabling us to successfully tackle even greater challenges and consolidate GMV NSL’s position as the benchmark space company.”