Hong-Kong based satellite operator Asia Broadcast Satellite (ABS) has secured a US$215m loan via HSBC, ING, and Standard Chartered, SatelliteFinance has learnt.
Goldman Sachs and Societe Generale are also rumoured to have participated in the loan…
Hong-Kong based satellite operator Asia Broadcast Satellite (ABS) has secured a US$215m loan via HSBC, ING, and Standard Chartered, SatelliteFinance has learnt.
Goldman Sachs and Societe Generale are also rumoured to have participated in the loan agreement.
A spokeswoman for ABS said that the company would be making an announcement in the next few days.
This transaction comes about eight months after UK-based private equity group Permira acquired ABS in a deal believed to be around US$200m. The transaction was entirely equity funded.
A couple of months after that, in December 2010, sources told SatelliteFinance that ABS was eyeing a US$250m high-yield bond issue in order to help finance its ABS-2 spacecraft.
Rumours about the likelihood of a debt financing first arose after ABS announced that it would be pushing ahead with the acquisition of ABS-2 in the wake of its acquisition by Permira.
A spokeswoman for ABS confirmed to SatelliteFinance at that time that ABS-2 will cost US$340m and that around US$110m of this cost will be financed via ABS’s existing cash flow.
Just over US$150m is to be raised through a condosat agreement with Asian telecoms operators Korea Telecom and Singtel, requiring ABS to pre-sell the satellite’s transponders.
The spokeswoman said that the remaining US$80m would be raised via an equity or debt financing.
ABS-2 is vital to the operator’s future international growth, given that the group’s five in-orbit satellites are all more than 10 years old. The new satellite, which will be built by Space Systems/Loral and is due to be launched in early 2013, will carry up to 87 C-band, Ku-band and Ka-band transponders, and will be placed at 75E, covering the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and CIS/Russia.
