SES ADMITS INTEREST IN BUYING PANAMSAT
PanAmSat wouldn’t comment Fri. on rumor company might be sold to European operator SES Astra of Luxembourg. PanAmSat spokesman said rumor “is nothing new,” saying it first “came up at the end of last year,” but company had policy of not making comments on “speculation.” No other details about sale were offered by source, but SES executive representative in U.S., Dean Olmstead, told us in brief interview he couldn’t say whether SES was negotiating with Hughes for PanAmSat, but if company were on market, SES definitely “would be interested.”
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Olmstead wouldn’t speculate on possible purchase price, but did reiterate comments made at C.E. Unterberg, Towbin Conference hosted by satellite analyst William Kidd last week in N.Y.C. that SES was attempting to get into U.S. market with hopes of becoming largest satellite operator in world. SES Astra already is largest satellite operator in direct-to-home (DTH) business in Europe. Olmstead said SES Astra wanted to expand beyond its core DTH business in Europe by “broadening its service offerings and geographic reach.” He said company would enter U.S. market by investing in existing operations and finding strategic partners. Olmstead said company was “hopeful something will happen before spring, but it’s up to sellers.” He said SES has been working on acquiring U.S. satellite operators for “better part of 2 years,” but he had set up operations in U.S. (in Washington) to “put a little more focus on it.”
Olmstead said SES was attempting to “cover the U.S. so sellers can’t get out. We want to tighten the noose.” Acquisition would boost company, which is leasing transponders, and give it competitive edge, he said. “The U.S. is a big market and provides a good base for attracting developing markets,” he said: “It will give us much-needed global presence and give us a competitive edge.” He said company was concerned primarily with infrastructure part of business rather than launch segment, but said each was important in effort to become major global operator. Satellite analyst Joshua Steiner of C.E. Unterberg, Towbin told us he wouldn’t be “surprised” if SES ended up with PanAmSat considering recent trend of companies’ “consolidating their satellite component” with other segments of space business.