Sea Launch expects to receive shareholder approval for a five-year US$200m revolving credit facility next week, SatelliteFinance has learnt.
The launch provider aims to complete the financing by mid-December. Parent company RSC Energia requires full…
Sea Launch expects to receive shareholder approval for a five-year US$200m revolving credit facility next week, SatelliteFinance has learnt.
The launch provider aims to complete the financing by mid-December. Parent company RSC Energia requires full shareholder approval to guarantee the loan, and the move has already received the nod from the Russian government, which directly owns 38% of the group.
The financing will be provided by a bank owned by the Russian government, giving Sea Launch a steady stream of funding for hardware requirements to mitigate the intermittent nature of its customer contract payments.
It is understood that in the meantime the company has agreed a small bridge financing with the state-owned bank for between US$25m-US$30m, which will stay in place until the revolver is secured.
Sea Launch declined to disclose details of its financing plans.
Kjell Karlsen, Sea Launch’s president, told SatelliteFinance back in September that extra working capital is necessary as the typical lead time of its customer contracts is around 27 months from start to finish.
He added that the company planned to build up its hardware supply and aggressively seek new contracts after completing its only agreement so far scheduled for 2013, the Intelsat-27 launch in the first quarter.
Last week, Sea Launch announced a deal with Hong Kong-based satellite operator AsiaSat to act as a back-up for one of two payloads currently reserved for a SpaceX launch.
The agreement can cover either AsiaSat 6 or AsiaSat 8, both of which are scheduled to be launched in 2014.
Since Sea Launch’s return to flight in September 2011 after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, it has completed five launches. Its latest, for Eutelsat 70B, was successfully launched late last night from its floating platform in the Pacific Ocean.
When the company came out of its bankruptcy process, most of the launches planned for 2013 had already been snapped up by its competitors. But, following the Q1 2013 launch, Sea Launch claims to have the necessary hardware in place to conduct further launches from the end of next year.
