Agreement to sell Surrey Satellite Technology Limited
Monday 7 April 2008
EADS Astrium signs an agreement to acquire Surrey Satellite Technology Limited from the University of Surrey.
You can listen to the interview online using the player below, or you can download the MP3 file.
Transcript
Transcript of Professor Christopher Snowden, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Surrey, talking about the agreement to sell Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd.
Q: I'm here with Professor Christopher Snowden, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Surrey talking about the announcement made earlier today about the University's intention to sell SSTL (subject to regulatory approval) to EADS Astrium. So Prof. Snowden why has the university decided to sell its holding in SSTL?
Prof Snowden: The Surrey Satellite Technology has been a fantastically successful spinout company for us and it has been with the University for many years, the University is looking for opportunities by divesting SSTL. The reason to sell SSTL today is to allow SSTL to grow even further by creating opportunities for greater level of investment from a new parent company.
Q: The sale that we have agreed (subject to the approval) is to whom and why in particular to them?
Prof Snowden: We have agreed - obviously subject to regulatory approval - a sale to Europe's leading space company EADS ASTRIUM. EADS was chosen as their bid was the strongest we had received and it secured the future of SSTL as an independent brand and a company in its current location and with its current management team. Further, it will continue to encourage SSTL as a current source of innovation enterprise and as well, the company will be able to compete with its sister companies for contracts.
Q: I suppose the most inevitable question - perhaps you won't be able to make a comment at this point of time - is, how much has the University realized from this sale?
Prof Snowden: I can't give an exact figure today, but perhaps we have negotiated a fair market value for the company which will allow the University to make significant strategic investments and will support us to realise our ambitions and achieve our objectives over the next few years. EADS ASTRIUM has also agreed as part of the agreement to support and collaborate with the university well in to the future. The money realised from this sale will be retained within the University for strategic use. This is an excellent example of how enterprise innovation within universities can ensure that financial benefits of research flow through to the economy. We have also agreed through the long term collaboration agreement dimension with EADS for a continuing relationship with the University which will provide research and add services to the EADS ASTRIUM group.
Q: That will undoubtedly help to strengthen what is already a very strong research capability of the University in space. How do you see this research capability at the University continuing to develop?
Prof Snowden: We have already started to invest strongly in Surrey's own space centre and the idea of being able to work closely with the leading space company in Europe allows us to grow this further. Obviously, one other thing we want to do is to see Surrey remain at the heart of UK's space industry. I think there is a real opportunity here to develop the UK space hub with Surrey at the centre of that. Further, we have collaborative agreements with the company, as I have described earlier. We also need to look into the future as well as how we can develop this. This is a very exciting opportunity for the University to remain firmly at the centre of space in the UK and perhaps even more as the centre of space research in Europe.
Q:How will our research relationship with SSTL - which has been very close - continue, once the sale has been agreed?
Prof Snowden: Well, we have now defined agreements where in fact we have actual contractual arrangements with SSTL to work on research programs and also with EADS ASTRIUM. Further it also gives an opportunity to work with other organisations in the UK. What we see here is the strengthening of the University's position in space which is recognised by the UK government.
Q: You have referenced the strengths in terms of the University spin-out SSTL. I think it is widely known in the industry that SSTL has been the most successful spin-out of any university. What do you think the sale today represents for Surrey as a University in the area of enterprise and innovation?
Prof Snowden: There are several things here; first of all it is one of the largest - or the largest - cash spin-outs ever achieved in the UK universities. That itself is an exciting achievement for the University. Beyond that, it illustrates how the University can nurture and grow companies at a point where there are exciting opportunities for the companies to invest in, as well as the more traditional route of looking at IPOS on the stock market which is of course a normal pattern followed by universities. In this particular case, we actually managed to realise the actual cash value of the company at the time of spin-out which is a less conventional route perhaps for universities. I think it becomes more cohensially aware now that as a team we have gained a great deal of knowledge from doing this. At a different level, also we understand much better now the process of intellectual property transfer and knowledge transfer which are very topical areas, but something which Surrey has actually been developing of course for many years.
Q: So turning to SSTL, how do you see the future of SSTL moving forward as an independant business?
Prof Snowden: Well SSTL's future is really being secured through this route and obviously it now has access to the cash funding, it will need to grow to become a large successful company which I am sure it will be. It stays as an independent company within the EADS ASTRIUM group which has been secured through this agreement. Its location in Surrey Research Park has also being retained and the university will continue to share the relevant intellectual property with SSTL. This is something which provides secured future, allows the company to grow into the future, and it allows the university to retain perhaps an even stronger foothold in the space industry and space research activity area as well as providing obviously important employment opportunity in this high technology industry.
Q: Thank you Prof. Snowden it's been very interesting talking to you today and we wish the University and SSTL all the best as it moves forward into this exciting new future.
Prof Snowden:Thank you very much.
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