Intelsat regain control over satellite

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Intelsat Ltd., the world's No. 2 communication satellite operator, on Friday said it has regained some control over a satellite whose malfunction had threatened to abort the company's planned $3.1 billion sale to private equity investors.

Bermuda-based Intelsat, which operates over 28 satellites, said on Nov. 29 that it lost "permanent" control over its Intelsat Americas-7 satellite due to an electrical problem.

The satellite, which covered North, Central and parts of South America, was being supplanted by other satellites during the outage, said Intelsat, which self-insured the equipment.

Intelsat on Friday said it has still not completely regained control over the satellite, but said that "service restoration is underway" after an extensive recovery effort.

"We thought it was dead, but we're getting customers back on," said Intelsat spokeswoman Dianne VanBeber. "It's unclear whether we can get back to a fully operational satellite."

Intelsat agreed on Aug. 16 to be sold to a group of four private equity firms, a deal that came amid a spate of similar sales of satellite operators to investment firms.

However, under so-called material adverse change provisions, Intelsat's buyers had the right to cancel the purchase after the satellite failure, although experts said a renegotiation of the price was more likely.

VanBeber said Intelsat's buyers "are still reviewing and evaluating the situation." The buyers include Apax Partners, Permira, Apollo Management and Madison Dearborn Partners.

Source: Reuters

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