A combined company of London's OneWeb and French satellite firm Eutelsat Communications SA is set to list on the London Stock Exchange this year, a move that could help recover Britain's status as a hotspot for tech listings, The Times reported on Tuesday.

A secondary listing was a commitment negotiated by ministers as part of plans for OneWeb to merge with Eutelsat, the newspaper reported, quoting Indian billionaire investor and OneWeb's executive chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal.

The companies had announced a deal to merge last year, when OneWeb was valued at $3.4 billion.

London is facing the risk of losing its appeal for stock-market listings. Earlier this month, UK chip designer Arm announced its decision to list only in New York, triggering calls for faster reforms to help the capital's financial district compete better in global tech listings.

Eutelsat and OneWeb did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

(Reporting by Anirudh Saligrama in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)