Airbus sells UP42 earth observer to Saudi National Space Company

Munich — SKW Schwarz has advi­sed Airbus Defence and Space GmbH on the sale of UP42 GmbH (UP42), a next-gene­ra­­tion Earth obser­va­tion plat­form, to Natio­nal Space Company (NSC), Saudi Arabia’s leading commer­cial space services provi­der. The closing of the tran­sac­tion is subject to custo­mary closing condi­ti­ons and regu­la­tory appr­ovals. Airbus foun­ded UP42 in Berlin in 2019. The company has more than 80 employees and is conside­red a pioneer in faci­li­ta­ting access to satel­lite and aerial image data sources and the use of geodata via the cloud. UP42 acts as a market­place and provi­des added-value services in the field of data analy­tics. Foun­ded in 2024, NSC is a subsi­diary of the Saudi Arabian Public Invest­ment Fund (PIF). For SKW Schwarz, the tran­sac­tion under­lines the firm’s important focus on tech M&A tran­sac­tions. Advi­sors to Airbus Defence and Space: SKW Schwarz, Munich Dr. Martin Bött­ger (lead), Stephan Neubauer (Hamburg); Asso­ciate: Chris­tine Wärl (all corporate/M&A).

SKW Schwarz is an inde­pen­dent full-service law firm. With around 130 lawy­ers at four loca­ti­ons in Germany, the firm advi­ses clients in all rele­vant areas of commer­cial law. At the end of 2018, the firm foun­ded SKW Schwarz @ Tech GmbH, in which the lawy­ers bundle all acti­vi­ties in the area of legal tech across loca­ti­ons and disciplines.