GMV Announces Merger of its UK Company And NSL

07 September 2020

GMV Innovating Solutions Limited, the UK aerospace company belonging to the Spanish technology multinational GMV, 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 UK leader in satellite navigation and critical applications. After the agreement GMV becomes sole shareholder of NSL and sets up the company GMV NSL, to be integrated seamlessly into GMV’s set of companies.

Back 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, space debris tracking, mission planning, flight dynamics, navigation, autonomy and robotics. Its 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). 

Set up in 1998 and boasting a solid and acknowledged track record in hi-tech projects, NSL is a UK-based SME specializing in satellite navigation and critical applications. From its Nottingham head office in the East Midlands, 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. Membership of the GMV powerhouse will enable GMV NSL to rise to even greater challenges and tap into the opportunities offered by the UK market, especially the space market, not only in satellite navigation and in critical applications, but also in earth observation, telecommunications and new technologies, with the overarching aim of winning pole position in Britain’s space sector.

In the words of Jesús B. Serrano, GMV’s CEO: “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”.

The sheer quality of both teams and the like-mindedness of GMV and NSL on company values, heritage, technological excellence and client satisfaction were all deal clinchers in this merger agreement.