Purchase of the spacecraft launch — S7 Group’s «entrance ticket» to the space industry.

S7 Group has announced the signing of a contract with the Sea Launch Group providing for purchase of the «Sea Launch» Property Complex. The contract has been signed today at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) 2016 being held in Guadelajara, Mexico.

The subject of the transaction are the Sea Launch Commander ship, the Odyssey spacecraft launch platform with the rocket segment equipment installed, the ground-based facilities located at the base port of Long-Beach (USA) and the «Sea Launch» trademark.

«Demothballing of the complex and start of the launching operations are scheduled 18 months after the approval of the transaction — approximately at the end of 2018. We expect to be able to make up to 70 launches in the next 15 years without any large investments into modernization of the Sea Launch. Our business strategy is in stark contrast to that of other companies — we are not going to sell promises, we will only sell launches as the carrier rockets are ready. The rockets will come first, the customers will follow», Vladislav Filev, S7 Group Director General, said.

The transaction is planned to be closed in six months — after approval by the relevant authorities of the USA and signing of a number of contracts comprising this transaction. The transaction must be approved by the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).

Today S7 Group has also signed an agreement for cooperation with RSC «Energia» (S. P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation «Energia»). The companies will work together to renew the operations at the «Sea Launch» Complex. RSC «Energia» will thus provide the S7 Group with complete engineering support and assistance in organization of the launches, as well as system integration.

«We are very happy to have signed this contract. We have come a long way to structure and implement this transaction. This poject is quite complicated, but the S7 Group has new strategies for business organization, and I’m sure that with our support they will manage to succeed in the project», Vladimir Solntsev, Director General of RSC «Energia», noted.

The mutual work of the S7 Group and RSC «Energia» will not be limited just by the launch services and the «Sea Launch», it will also involve cooperation aimed at creation of a space transport infrustructure.

«The purchase of the spacesraft launch is our «entrance ticket» to the space industry. The space infrastructure is in rapid evolution. From our point of view, it is a very interesting business line with a good long-term prospective outlook», — Vladislad Filev said.

S7 Group is the largest private aviation holding in Russia uniting airline and technical maintenance companies. S7 Airlines is one of the companies comprising the S7 Group. The S7 Airlines fleet includes 66 aircraft (45 Airbus and 21 Boeing) and is one of the newest and most modern on the Russian air transportation market.

The airline has a wide route network created on the basis of the air transport hubs in Moscow (Domodedovo) and Novosibirsk (Tolmachevo). S7 Airlines also performs regular flights to 145 destinations in 27 countries of the world, including countries of the CIS, Europe, Near East, South-East Asia and the Asia-Pacific region.

In 2010 S7 Airlines became a member of the oneworld global aviation alliance which unites 14 largest airlines based on all of the continents. Together the airlines of the alliance operate flights to more than 1000 destinations in 150 countries of the world.

By the results of 2015 S7 Airlines carried more than 10.6mln passengers.

S7 Group’s shareholders also own the Aviation Maintenance Holding «Engineering», largest in Russia and the CIS.