Telenor of Norway is set to buy around one third of Lockheed Martin Global Telecommunications’ (LMGT) stake in Inmarsat Ventures Limited. Following the transaction, LMGT’s stake in Inmarsat will be reduced from just over 22 per cent to around 14 per cent, while Telenor’s stake will be increased from 6.8 to 15 per cent – making Telenor the largest shareholder in Inmarsat.

“This transaction illustrates that Telenor is dedicated to the sector of global mobile satellite communication,” said Stig Eide Sivertsen, CEO of Telenor Broadband Services. Telenor Satellite Services, a unit within Telenor Broadband Services, will hold the shares.

Although originally set up to develop satellite communications for the maritime industry, Inmarsat now operates a global satellite system used by independent service providers to offer a range of voice and multimedia communications for maritime, land mobile and aeronautical customers. Headquartered in Oslo, Norway, Telenor is present in more than 30 countries and had revenues of US $3.9 billion (E4.57 billion) in 1999.