Thaicom’s satellite broadband subsidiary IPstar Australia has acquired local satellite broadband services provider Orion Satellite Systems.
IPstar Australia paid a total consideration of A$13.37m (US$12.1m) for the company, split between A$7.4m to the…
Thaicom’s satellite broadband subsidiary IPstar Australia has acquired local satellite broadband services provider Orion Satellite Systems.
IPstar Australia paid a total consideration of A$13.37m (US$12.1m) for the company, split between A$7.4m to the parent company Orion Satellite Investment Ltd and A$5.96m for all the shares of the operating company, equal to A$1 per share.
Founded in 2003 and headquartered in Perth, Western Australia, Orion Satellite Systems provides satellite broadband services to Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and parts of South-East Asia and the South Pacific.
The company is an approved retail service provider for the National Broadband Network Company (NBN Co), the PPP tasked with providing universal broadband across the country.
While NBN intends to launch its own Ka-band birds in 2015, the company has been using both IPstar Australia and Australian satellite operator Optus in the interim.
Prior to NBN, IPstar had around 85% of the Australian satellite broadband market and is understood to provide up to 95% of the capacity used by NBN’s rural broadband service.
Thaicom said the vertical acquisition would help give its satellite broadband offering greater access to the corporate and enterprise sectors in Australia.
Commenting on the transaction, Suphajee Suthumpun, chairman and CEO of Thaicom, said: “The acquisition of Orion Satellite Systems comes with a number of strategic benefits for us and will strengthen our end-to-end service capability. Orion’s vast experience in providing premium satellite services and solutions will complement our existing products and services portfolio and will help drive the take-up of IPstar in the enterprise, corporate, and government markets in Australia.”
Seeking debenture
Thaicom will seek shareholder approval at its AGM on 27 March to raise as much as Bt7bn (US$217m) in a debenture that will have a maximum tenor of 10 years.
The unsecured bond would come in either Thai baht or US dollars, and be offered to retail investors as well as local and foreign institutional buyers and the company’s management.
Thaicom said that proceeds could be used for CapEx investment, refinancing existing debt and for general working capital purposes.
The group is also looking to add an extra director and increase its share capital by US$186,000 to around Bt5.489bn (US$170m).
In its latest financial results, the operator listed Bt3.7bn (US$115m) in 6.15% notes due November 2014 as its only bond. CEO Suphajee Suthumpun told SatelliteFinance in an interview back in August 2013 that the company would look to repay this bond from existing cash flows. Once it has done so, Thaicom’s debt to equity ratio will fall from 0.52 to around 0.40.
It posted Bt1.13bn (US$35m) in profit and Bt8bn (US$247m) in total income for the year to the end of 2013.
