Greek telecom incumbent OTE may consider selling its satellite unit Hellas Sat in order to refinance its debt, the company said during a media lunch.
The company, which is majority-owned by Deutsche Telekom, currently has about €5bn in debt, of which…
Greek telecom incumbent OTE may consider selling its satellite unit Hellas Sat in order to refinance its debt, the company said during a media lunch.
The company, which is majority-owned by Deutsche Telekom, currently has about €5bn in debt, of which €3.4bn is expected to mature in 2014.
But because of the tight lending market in Greece, OTE has chosen to sell some assets instead in order to raise the much-needed financing, SatelliteFinance understands.
In late December, the incumbent had already confirmed that it was selling its 20% stake in Telecom Srbija back to the state-owned company for €380m.
As for the sale of Hellas Sat, the names of potential suitors have not yet been disclosed.
However, in mid-September, SES CEO Romain Bausch told journalists that the satellite would consider acquiring Hellas Sat if put up for sale.
But at the time, Bausch also highlighted “political obstacles” that could inhibit a foreign company’s approach for the group, which has its headquarters in Athens and Nicosia.
Although SES has a good relationship with Hellas Sat through being contracted to provide, install, and integrate its ground infrastructure, “that doesn’t mean we’ll get a good price”, he added.
Commenting on the buyer interest at the time, one analyst observed: “You would effectively be buying a single ageing satellite [Hellas-Sat 2] so it would really be about the orbital slot and regulatory allocations.”
Other potential bidders may be Israel-based Spacecom and Eutelsat, SatelliteFinance understands, although the latter would not comment at this stage.
Ku-band Hellas-Sat 2 was launched in May 2003 and placed at 39E.
In October last year, OTE launched its first DTH platform in the country, OTE TV with services transmitted via Eutelsat’s Eurobird-9A at 9E.
It had been suggested, a few years ago, that Hellas Sat itself had submitted an application to the Greek National Council for Radio and Television (NCRTV) to set up a DTH satellite platform.
But an OTE spokeswoman told SatelliteFinance in late August that the company was not operating a DTH platform in the country.
