Intelsat Goes Public…Opens On Wall Street + More

[SatNews] Total net proceeds from the offerings, after deducting various expenses, is expected to be approximately $471.7. million.

Intelsat S.A. (formerly known as Intelsat Global Holdings S.A.) (the “Company”), today announced the pricing of its initial public offering of 19,323,672 common shares at a price of $18.00 per share and concurrent public offering of 3,000,000 Series A mandatory convertible junior non-voting preferred shares (the “Series A preferred shares”) at a price of $50.00 per share.  On the mandatory conversion date, May 1, 2016, each Series A preferred share, unless previously converted, will automatically convert into common shares. 

The Series A preferred shares will have a 5.75 percent dividend rate and a liquidation preference of $50.00 per share.  The Company has granted the underwriters in the initial public offering of common shares a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 2,898,550 common shares.  The Company has granted the underwriters in the public offering of Series A preferred shares a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 450,000 Series A preferred shares.  The Company’s common shares will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “I” and its Series A preferred shares will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “I PR A.”  The offerings are expected to close on or about April 23, 2013.  The closing of the offering of Series A preferred shares is conditioned upon the closing of the offering of the Company’s common shares.

Total net proceeds from the offerings, after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses, is expected to be approximately $471.7 million. Total net proceeds from the offering of common shares, after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses, is expected to be approximately $328.8 million.  Total net proceeds from the offering of Series A preferred shares, after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions, is expected to be approximately $142.9 million.  The Company intends to use substantially all of the net proceeds from the offerings to repay, redeem, retire or repurchase a portion of its outstanding indebtedness.

Goldman, Sachs & Co., J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC and BofA Merrill Lynch are acting as joint book-running managers, Barclays Capital Inc., Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., Nomura Securities International, Inc. and UBS Securities LLC are acting as book-runners and Evercore Group L.L.C., HSBC Securities (USA) Inc., RBC Capital Markets, LLC, LionTree Advisors LLC and Raymond James & Associates, Inc. are acting as co-managers for the offerings.

Update as of 11:10 in New York…

Source: Bloomberg

Intelsat SA (I), the world’s largest satellite services business, climbed on its first day of trading after raising $347.8 million in a U.S. initial public offering.

The shares rose 7.6 percent to $19.36 at 11:10 a.m. in New York, reversing earlier losses. Intelsat sold 19.3 million shares for $18 each, and had earlier offered 21.7 million shares for at least $21.

A group of private-equity funds led by BC Partners Ltd. and Silver Lake Management LLC acquired Intelsat in a 2008 buyout that valued the satellite operator’s equity at about $5 billion. Neither firm planned to offer shares in the IPO, filings show. Intelsat will use proceeds from the offering to repay debt.

The fact that Intelsat’s private-equity owners have not sold down at the IPO was “encouraging for incoming investors,” said Giles Thorne, an analyst at Jefferies LLC in London, in a telephone interview today.