spacetoday.net: Report: four firms to buy Intelsat

Posted: Mon, Aug 16, 2004, 10:31 AM ET (1431 GMT)
Four private equity firms have teamed together to put together a $3 billion bid for satellite operator Intelsat, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday. The bid, by firms Apollo Management, Madison Dearborn Partners, Apax Partners, and Permira Advisers, valued closely-held Intelsat at $18-19 a share, according to the report. The bid is believed to have topped proposals by two other equity firms, KKR and Blackstone. That bid also exceeds the $12-16/share value the company had hoped to get earlier this year in an initial public offering of stock; Intelsat canceled its IPO plans earlier this year after legislation passed that extended the deadline for the former intergovernmental organization to make shares publicly available. Intelsat officials did not comment on the bid, although the Journal reported that an announcement of the deal could come as early as Monday. Intelsat would be the third major satellite operator to be acquired by private equity firms this year: in April KKR acquired PanAmSat in a $3.4-billion deal that will close this week, while in June Blackstone announced it would acquire New Skies Satellites for just under $1 billion.