The sports arm of Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera is reportedly on the verge of buying Turkish DTH firm Digiturk for between US$1bn and US$1.2bn.
A local report said BeIN Media Group’s acquisition is awaiting the nod from the Turkish state’s Savings…
The sports arm of Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera is reportedly on the verge of buying Turkish DTH firm Digiturk for between US$1bn and US$1.2bn.
A local report said BeIN Media Group’s acquisition is awaiting the nod from the Turkish state’s Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF), which seized a 53% stake in Digiturk from diversified holding company Çukurova in 2013.
US private equity firm Providence Equity Partners owns the rest and has agreed to the sale, added the report. It is unclear whether BeIN will buy the whole group.
The companies were unable to comment before the press deadline.
Rumours about a sale have been doing the rounds since TMSF took the holding after Çukurova missed certain commercial repayments.
Turkish media giant Dogan Group had at one point lodged a US$742m bid for TMSF’s stake, trumping an earlier US$530m proposal from incumbent telco Turk Telecom.
Al Jazeera’s interest was first reported in December 2013, when it was said to have hired Barclays to advise on a potential bid.
Unconfirmed reports in December 2014 claimed its offer to buy the 53% stake for US$820m was accepted. Providence has also frequently been touted as a possible seller or buyer in any Digiturk deal.
Digiturk’s attractiveness is largely driven by the first division Turkish football rights it has until the end of the 2016-17 season. The group is reported to have 3.3 million subscribers.
It is Al Jazeera’s latest push into the satellite broadcaster market as it continues to expand out of the Middle East. SatelliteFinance understands that a deal to share the ownership of Spanish DTH group Canal+, also known as Distribuidora de Television, with Telefonica could receive regulatory approval this week.
Turkey starts work on first in-house satellite
Turkey has started work on the first telecoms satellite to be fully built in the country, aiming to launch the TL548m (US$204m) project in 2020.
Ensar Gu, CEO of the country’s satellite operator Turksat, told local news agency Anadolu that Turksat 6A is now being developed by 354 specialists under the leadership of the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK).
Local players Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI), Military Electronic Industries (ASELSAN) and CTech are also cooperating in the programme.
State-run Turksat did not respond to requests for comment.
Turkey’s government vowed a decade ago to invest more in space technology to improve its infrastructure and independence. It has ordered a number of spacecraft from other countries since then for Turksat.
The first satellite to be made in Turkey was the TUBITAK-built Earth observation craft Rasat, which was launched in 2011.
That same year TAI agreed to use a newly established facility in Ankara to help build a telecoms satellite called Turksat 5A (Peykom-1).
Japanese satellite manufacturer Mitsubishi Electric (MELCO) was reported in 2013 to have been lined up to build the payload, and the spacecraft had been targeting a 2015 launch.
However, that launch appears to have been delayed until at least 2017. Last week, Turksat told reporters that it expected to sign a construction agreement this year.
Turksat 5A is targeting 31E, while Turksat 6A will be placed at 42E.
Melco has been heavily involved in setting up the country’s space assets so far.
Turksat 4B, the latest satellite the Japanese group has built for Turksat, is set to be launched in June. Engineers that Melco has helped train for that project are expected to transfer over to develop Turksat 6A.
A similar deal helped Melco become the first Japanese satellite maker to enter the Arab satcoms market in September, when it agreed to build a bird for Qatar’s Es’hailSat. Melco is running an in-house satellite training programme for Qatari engineers as part of that deal.
