The battle to buy the Australian satellite unit of Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel), Optus Satellite, is heating up with satellite operators Eutelsat and SES and a private equity-led consortium reportedly the shortlisted bidders.
While fellow…
The battle to buy the Australian satellite unit of Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel), Optus Satellite, is heating up with satellite operators Eutelsat and SES and a private equity-led consortium reportedly the shortlisted bidders.
While fellow sponsors KKR and Carlyle have allegedly dropped out of the race, TPG Capital and Blackstone are claimed to have teamed up with Malaysian satellite operator Measat to bid, according to Bloomberg citing people familiar with the matter.
Eutelsat, SES, Blackstone, Measat declined to comment on the report, while TPG could not be reached for comment.
SingTel provided no further update on its statement of March 2013 in which it said that the company was ‘conducting a strategic review of its Optus Satellite business’ and that it would make an ‘appropriate announcement in the event of any material development arising from the review’.
Previous reports suggested that Inmarsat as well as the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan and Providence Equity Partners were also interested in Optus Satellite
An local analyst told SatelliteFinance a few weeks ago that the reported interest of several financial sponsors was not surprising as a number of them had increasingly been looking to boost their presence in Australia.
Meanwhile, the CEO of Australian satellite operator NewSat, Adrian Ballintine, told the Australian in mid-June that his company could throw its hat in the Optus ring after being approached by several sponsors and banks to make a joint offer.
An information memorandum regarding the sale of Optus Satellite was sent on 27 May and final offers are reportedly due in August. The company has been valued at approximately A$2bn (US$1.9bn).
Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley, which have been hired to work on the strategic review, are set to offer a A$1.7bn (US$1.64bn) staple financing to help SingTel sell the business.
SingTel initiated its strategic review in the wake of Optus Satellite’s parent company Optus reporting a fall in sales. The company, which is Australia’s second largest telco and is 100%-owned by SingTel, announced a 5% drop in revenue in Q4 2012, compared with Q4 2011, to A$2.17bn (US$2.15bn).
This has promoted some analysts to suggest that proceeds from a successful sale being used to help fund Optus’ 4G mobile rollout across Australia.
Formed in 1985, Optus Satellite has launched nine of its own spacecraft and currently had five satellite in orbit. A sixth, Optus-10 is expected to be launched by Arianespace later this year.
Together with Thailand’s IPstar, Optus is providing interim services for Australia’s National Broadband Network Company (NBN Co), the PPP tasked with providing universal broadband services across the country.
NBN Co, which aims to provide a combination of fibre, wireless and satellite services, will use capacity from Optus until its own Ka-band spacecraft are launched in 2015.
