Satellite - Hamilton Group · 14 Pakistan DTH tender 16 SPACE SEGMENT 16 Cobham rights issue 17 MDA...

Space segment: MDA hires Blackstone and Harris alumnus for US push

space services: Pakistan working on auction of first DTH licences

satellite operators: CGWIC sells two more satellites to NigComSat

Q&A: Tracey Haslam, Harris CapRock president

Space services: Ex-Google Earth CTO to advise on Seraphim’s £80m space fund

special report: Satellite life extension services raise liability questions

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Orbcomm expands in AfricaGround Segment

SES to take control of O3b NetworksSatellite Operators

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The UK’s export credit agency is hoping a spurt in mid-sized space firms and increas-ing government sup-port will finally see it compete on the main stage with sat-ellite-funding rivals across the world.

ECAs have come to the fore in the industry in the wake of the financial crisis in 2008/09, helping sign off more than US$5bn in support as bank funding dried up and the bond markets became problematic. Their cheap funding and covenant-lite approach has seen them become a mainstay of the industry ever since.

US Ex-Im Bank, Export Development Canada and France’s Coface have been responsible for the vast majority of ECA-backed satellite deals in the West, while UK Export Finance (UKEF) has taken a backseat not least because Airbus DS, the country’s largest satellite maker, has histor-ically chosen Coface as its lead ECA because of its sizable French operations.

UKEF has supported £119m of business over the last five years through 11 exports in the space industry, its CEO Louis Taylor told SatelliteFinance.

This has mostly been through sup-porting the UK portion of satellite contracts through the reinsurance of other ECAs, such as its co-financing of the MEASAT-3b sat-ellite in 2014. The agency also provided early support for British smallsat maker SSTL in 2004 when it guaranteed a five- year £7.5m loan for a £8.75m micro satellite. SSTL was later sold to Airbus DS but still has a long-standing relationship with UKEF.

Taylor said its small slice of the global multibillion dollar ECA activity to date is a reflection of the fact that there has not been a UK prime contractor for major satellite construction.

“Now that the sector is growing and new companies are emerging who can act as sub-contractors in the manufacturing process or in the services connected with satellites, UKEF is actively engaging with companies and trade bodies to encourage exporters of every size to make contact so that we can explore ways in which we can support their business,” he added.

One potential ECA user is Scotland’s Clyde Space, which has been rapidly

expanding on the back of the smallsat boom, prompting plans recently to set up shop in the US.

It has an export finance set-up with HSBC that could be underwritten by UKEF, but has so far chosen to draw from this directly without ECA support.

“If we have a large project that requires significant upfront funding I think UKEF would be very useful,” Clyde Space CEO Craig Clark said.

Another British potential is England-based equipment maker Oxford Space Systems (OSS), which could bring in the ECA to support two recent contracts: One to develop a boom system that would deploy electric propulsion on a microsat, and another to develop an antenna based on its flexible composite material.

One of UKEF’s key advantages is its will-ingness to accept satellite contracts with as little as 20% UK contribution – a flexibility only really seen elsewhere in Scandinavia.

This means a long-term export credit loan backing 85% of the value of a sat-ellite contract could be secured despite equipment, or services, being acquired from a whole array of different countries.

However, there are disadvantages that can’t be avoided. The due diligence process of going through an ECA can range from three months to at worst a year and a half. That has hardly been a turn off for large industry players who tend to have long lead times to put their satellite projects together.

But the situation is trickier for smaller and emerging companies who are under dif-ferent cost pressures.

On page 18, OSS CEO Mike Lawton calls for new, streamlined funding regimes to tackle the unique challenges that VC-backed space firms are facing in the UK.

INSIDE THIS

ISSUEMay 2016 | Issue 201

4 SATELLITE OPERATORS

5 Iridium eyes smallsat partners

6 NigComSat orders satellites

7 SES to take over O3b

8 Q&A: Tracey Haslam,

Harris CapRock

11 SPACE SERVICES

11 Seraphim fund nears launch

13 Canal+ expands in Italy

14 Pakistan DTH tender

16 SPACE SEGMENT

16 Cobham rights issue

17 MDA announces CEO

18 OSS CEO speaks out

19 GROUND SEGMENT

19 Orbcomm bolts on again

21 LAUNCH

21 Sea Launch sale jeopardised

22 ICBM launch controversy

24 World View US$15m series B

25 LAUNCH SCHEDULE

26 Special Report: Life extension

raises liability questions

27 INSURANCE

28 Bird & Bird Regulatory Round-up

30 MANDATES

33 EXECUTIVE MOVES

34 COMPANY INDEX

SatelliteFinance

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UK’s ECA eyes greater space roleviewpoint

Jason RainbowEditor,SatelliteFinance

‘UKEF is actively engaging with companies and trade bodies to encourage exporters of every size to make contact so that we can explore ways in which we can support their business”

8 www.satelliteFinance.com

Q&A with Harris CapRock president Tracey HaslamPutting energy into cruise

VSAT provider Harris CapRock has been increasingly focused on serving demand in maritime as the Houston-based company battles the downturn in oil & gas.SatelliteFinance assistant editor Guy Ferneyhough speaks to president Tracey Haslam to get an update on its progress, and her take on the wider industry.

Guy Ferneyhough: Can you give me a very quick overview of Harris CapRock's operations and where you’re active for any readers who don’t know, and tell us your strategy for the year?Tracey Haslam: Harris CapRock grew up with the tag line “remote and harsh” environment communications.

Most of the customers in remote and harsh were really oil & gas. Serving rigs and operators that hired rigs was our bread and butter for a long time.

From remote and harsh we started to look more at highly mobile services, where we developed special expertise in higher throughput services. That opened up other applications, like the cruise industry, which we've grown very rapidly in.

Part of our strategy is to really get that balance of business between oil & gas and cruise. There's a bit of inverse proportion-ality from a macroeconomic perspective:

When the oil price is down, the cruise com-panies actually get a bit of a lift both from their costs going down, and consumers also have more disposable income to spend on leisure activities like cruise.

GF: I hadn't thought about it that way. TH: That really gives us quite a bit of resil-iency in this market. A lot of folks are hurting in oil & gas and the communica-tions market for energy has come down substantially as the number of rigs has fallen. We're at something like 40% of the size of the market from 15 months ago.

However, on the cruise side, the

challenge there is being able to rapidly provide as much bandwidth as they really want to use. I think you see with the con-sumer today that goes on cruises, it's not to disconnect from the world anymore.

They still want to do Facebook, they still want to Skype home, they still want to stay very connected.

And there's still a certain amount of business travel that demands VPN connec-tions and email and all those other sorts of things even when you're on holiday. We see that rapidly rising, we've seen the percentage of people that use internet when they're on the cruise has gone from very low per-centages and is now still ramping up.

“When the oil price is down, the cruise companies actually get a bit of a lift both from their costs going down, and consumers also have more disposable income to spend on leisure activities like cruise”Harris CapRock’s Tracey Haslam

There's still a lot of ways to go there but it's just staggering how quickly cruise ships have gone from being smaller consumers than an oil rig to having two and three times as much consumption as an oil rig in a very small space of time.

Our strategy was to move more towards a balance that keeps us economically stable with cruise and oil & gas, and to ensure that we have this one global network.

Our tag line now is “one clear path”. We've developed this antenna called CapRock One – which is the “one” in “one clear path” – which can pick up any kind of flavour of communications that you want: LTE, C-band, Ku-band, Ka-band. We have our own long shot directional wireless system that we can use that's come from the military technology.

We asked ourselves: “How do we have a ubiquitous connector and offer to our customers?”

That seemed to be a problem any time they wanted to move, where they had to change to get into a different band because there's only C-band coverage here and there's only Ku there.

Our first step was to create this ubiq-uitous connector in CapRock One, which we're seeing a lot of success on. Transocean, the largest drilling rig company, has just signed a contract with us to outfit their whole fleet with it, which is a terrific endorsement.

We've just put some on some of the new Royal Caribbean builds, and they're on a couple of other cruise line new builds as well at the moment. And then there's some other drillers that are picking them up.

GF: Earlier this year Harris CEO William Brown talked about re-structuring Harris CapRock fol-lowing a write-down by closing facilities, and cutting 20% of the workforce to “right size” the busi-ness. How is that process going? TH: Since we are diversified with cus-tomers across the maritime and energy markets we haven’t been forced to make the same dramatic cuts as some of our competition.

With the number of rigs and asso-ciated communications dropping approx-imately 40% we have to be realistic about the market and have adjusted accordingly.

In addition to seeing bandwidth needs of current clients increase, in the near future we will be publicly announcing a variety of customer wins in both markets. This will be coupled with the release of new products and services requested by our customers. I continue to be optimistic about future of Harris CapRock.

GF: What's the next challenge that the industry faces? TH: Global coverage was one. We've really stepped up our global connectivity platform in the last couple of years so that we are, really to an effect, the only folks who can connect anywhere.

Then the next challenge that I think the industry brought to us was the “clear” in our “one clear path”. There's a lot of nervousness around cyber security and as a company of Harris Corporation – which has some great military expertise in this arena, working for the FBI and others – we have been able to help our customers in the commercial sector.

GF: Looking at the VSAT mar-ket more generally, where do you see Harris CapRock's position within that? TH: There's a lot of markets that are really emerging and becoming very hard-fought. I think one is aviation, which you could essentially say is short cruise ships in the air, but it's a very different model there.

I don't intend to take CapRock into aviation. I think there are plenty of players competing hard in that market and I don't intend to be part of the foray there.

We're very good at energy, we're very good at cruise, and we have a small partic-ipation in the commercial maritime sector, but that's really only if our core customers ask us to do that.

We want to give the best solutions to our customers, it doesn't mean we blanket go after everything in the VSAT market.

GF: You talked about all the high-throughput capacity coming online. Do you expect prices to come down? TH: Everyone is talking like prices are coming down, but I think it’s more the case that if you’re prepared to sign some long term agreements then the prices come down. We see a lot of customers not willing to commit long term and I think we have to see how it plays out.

There's so much announced capacity to be launched that I think the industry is holding its breath to see if it will all happen – is there really the demand for all that? Will they just consume themselves and then

there'll be no capital for another ten years and prices will come back up again because of the scarcity of the supply? We've seen that cycle in the satellite business before.

Everybody's posturing, but when they go cap in hand to get the funding, if the returns aren't there then I'm not sure that capital investors are really going to step up for all of it.

It does make you wonder now with all this capacity announced and now we're going to completely change the pricing model, how does that sustain the industry and will people take their capital elsewhere?

GF: It's very interesting to hear that from your perspective. The operators seem confident. Do you see any new verticals for Harris CapRock? You ruled out avia-tion, but are there other areas?TH: We're piloting a few others that we think could come up in the next three to five year cycle, but I would say aviation is the one that everybody will focus on – I really do want to stay out of that one. ViaSat has a very strong value proposition in there, and I think there are a lot of players in that market. There's definitely not another market of that size or magnitude.

Commercial maritime has a lot of units in it but they're very low consumers and it's a lot of work to get that done. I think Inmarsat has a strong position in that market, they're the direct operator and provider. So you have to look at where we can add value in that.

Providing to a cruise ship is very complex and needs a lot of management and, again, that's our strong point. If it's not wholly mobile I think we're a little less inclined to play.

I think the other stuff to watch, and I’m not necessarily saying we're in or out of it, is with the Kymetas of the world bringing connectivity into cars. That's another mass market there that goes through into the auto manufacturers and depends what sort of services they want from the connec-tivity. I think that's one that we're watching to see how it emerges. It looks to me like a different model than how we operate in cruise and oil & gas and aviation. I think we'll have to wait and see.

Q&A


“It does make you wonder now with all this capacity announced and now we’re going to completely change the pricing model, how does that sustain the industry and will people take their capital elsewhere?”

Q&A


GF: You have a partnership with MEO broadband operator O3b Networks. Could you speak a little bit about the relationship there?TH: We're one of a number of O3b’s resellers. We've worked with them on the Royal Caribbean where they have a unique position and provide a lot of connectivity, which is why we see where the future is going with the connectivity that O3b provide. We were working with them on those initial installs – I've ridden a couple of those ships and they're very exciting to be on.

O3b plays in back haul markets and other things that we don't play in. We want to bring them into oil & gas and are working very hard to do that. I think there's a play there, but I think the timings a little unfor-tunate right now for oil & gas.

GF: You talked about balancing the business a bit more between the oil & gas and maritime. Are you look-ing to get revenues from maritime to a similar level as oil & gas?TH: Yes, we will. The size of the cruise market isn't near where it can match oil & gas right now. I think if we see all the market projec-tions, energy is still three times the size of cruise. So while we have a very strong market position in both, obviously even with energy down it's still bigger than cruise. We haven't achieved that balance, it's probably a year and half/two years away, but cruise consumption will absolutely catch up. It's like in a hotel, does anybody check-in to a hotel now and not use the Wi-Fi? I think it will get that way on cruise in the next couple of years, which means it's just going to continue to grow.

I think more the challenge for us is meeting the price point that a consumer expects on a cruise ship and the degree of service. They want the service to have the

same quality that they have at home when they stream Netflix. They go on a 14 day cruise there's going to be a day when they just want to binge watch Game of Thrones, and we ensure that video quality and that low latency, so we've been spending a lot of work on doing that. The cruise revenues have a dif-ferent component to them around optimising the guest experience for a different type of service than a corporate service on an oil rig.

GF: Earlier you mentioned be-ing owned by Harris benefit-ted you on the security side. How else does Harris help? TH: It's really very exciting for me as the leader of the CapRock business that essen-tially I get to go shopping on Harris tech-nology that's available for commercialisation.

When we spend on R&D we look at whether there is double-duty for not just the military application but also a commercial application through the CapRock arm.

That makes us very different in the market because we're not just doing inte-gration of bandwidth with modems, we're really bringing our own technology and our own differentiated skill sets to the party. Where we see a gap in the market or a need, we can develop a technology with the Harris resources to get there.

I go up to the executive team at Harris and review my strategy with them and that brings a lot of value because I listen to the other teams’ strategies and we can see where we have a lot of synergy.

GF: There have been rumours that Harris is weighing a sale of Harris CapRock – can you say anything about that? TH: We don’t comment on rumours or speculation.

GF: Finally, what new innovation or piece of technology would be truly game changing for your industry? TH: I'm really excited about our flat panel antenna. In particular, the way that we are looking to do some manufacturing on that. If you want to expand your capacity essen-tially you just Lego-clip them, and you print them off like Lego too to add them on.

Everybody's talking about all the high-throughput and the capacity available, and if that does bring the price down then it does make it very accessible. There are industries where the economics haven't worked for them to do real time data before.

If I take the seismic companies, for example in the oil sector, they go out and they're doing a lot of work and collecting a lot of data, and they wait for three months until they're finished and then they come back in on tapes and start to analyse it.

If they could real-time stream that there is definitely a data mass that makes that financially attractive.

I think just the availability of more bandwidth at a different price point could really be a game changer.

There's some other fun stuff too that is coming out. LEOs are always exciting to watch, and I like to look at UAVs as con-nectivity. It's an interesting space that's just starting to get regulated by the FAA – how can we use those? We just saw the first package delivery by a UAV –why can't I have a communications payload on one of those? If there's urgent need, like an airline goes down, we could stream video from it and see what's going on.

The whole industry seems to have been fairly slow for about 20 years and now it's a boom and lots of new ideas are coming through. I think it's just an exciting time to be in it.

Harris CapRock Stoneywood Teleport on the outskirts of Aberdeen, Scotland

SPACE SEGMENT/ COBHAM RISKS BREACHING DEBT COVENANTS AFTER PROFIT WARNING - PG. 16

/ BLACKSTONE M&A ADVISER TO BECOME CALIFORNIA-BASED CEO OF MDA - PG. 17

/ ESA FUNDING SYSTEM CRITICISED BY OXFORD SPACE SYSTEMS CEO - PG. 18

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Cobham’s shares closed down more than 17% on 26 April after the UK defence and space technology firm launched a £500m (US$727m) rights issue and said Q1 profits had plunged 70% to £15m (US$22m).

Without the equity issue the group warned it risked breaching covenants tied to debt incurred from buying Aeroflex Holding, the US-based radio-frequency semiconductor specialist, for US$1.46bn in 2014.

That deal was aimed at diversifying Cobham away from the government sector where budgets were strained and into the commercial the market, where Aeroflex sells products that include space qualified and radiation hardened materials used in satellite communications.

However, the British firm said earnings and cash had been adversely impacted by “unexpected and significant market head-winds in some of its shorter cycle com-mercial markets”, including in marine satcoms and its wireless businesses. This came amid reduced underlying demand in Asia-Pacific and weakness in oil and gas markets across the world.

Operational issues in the wireless division delayed shipments, prompting the group to take a one-off charge of £9m (US$13m).

According to Cobham, the slow start to the year was also caused by increasing headwinds in its commercial fly-in fly-out business, as well as rising costs within its advanced electronics solutions unit.

The strengthening of the US dollar against sterling since the Aeroflex acqui-sition also helped push the group’s leverage to 2.9x net debt to EBITDA by the end of 2015, above its 2.1x target.

Announcing the right issue, which has been fully underwritten by BofA Merrill Lynch and Jefferies, Cobham pledged a cost-cutting drive to save £30m (US$43.7m) per annum by the end of this year. It expects net savings of about £10m (US$14.6m) in 2016 from reviewing group-wide cost structures.

Bob Murphy, Cobham’s CEO, said: “We remain confident that continued

investment in technology and know-how will enable us to maintain our leading positions in markets with good prospects leaving Cobham well placed to deliver growth over the medium term.”

Cobham is one of British MSS operator Inmarsat’s terminal manufacturers for its next generation Global Xpress system.

Sandy Morris at Jefferies said the launch on 30 March 2016 of Fleet Xpress, the sat-ellite operator’s maritime communications service that will use Global Xpress, may now

generate demand for Cobham’s satcoms unit.“We could not envisage a scenario

where Cobham risked breaching the net debt/EBITDA covenant limit of 3.5 times, but the operational issues at wireless have derailed our arithmetic,” she said.

“The scale of the problem is one thing, the scale of the solution another. There is much to digest, but we firmly counsel against over-reacting.”

Cobham’s shares closed down 17.47% to 177.60p.

Cobham announces £500m rights issue and profit warning in Q1 results

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Source: S&P Capital IQ

SPACE SEGMENT


British space startups are being held back by “old space” ESA funding regimes that are more suited to larger and more established industry players, according to the CEO of Oxford Space Systems.

Mike Lawton, who has helped the sat-ellite equipment maker raise about US$2.5m in venture capital since founding it in September 2013, believes red tape needs to be slashed for the UK to meet goals of growing a commercially focused, entrepreneurial space industry via a new generation of SMEs.

He pointed to a disconnect between the space agency’s ‘failure is not an option’ men-tality and the ‘fail fast, fail cheap’ approach taken by VC investors who have an appetite for risk on the back of rapid progress.

“What ESA does well is deliver world-class science missions where excellence in technical performance and quality of data is the primary focus,” he said in an interview with SatelliteFinance.

“Missions are characterised by being long, expensive and invariably involve mul-tiple international partners. Thus the bureau-cratic, risk-averse nature of the agency is diametrically at odds for what a dynamic, ven-ture-capital backed space tech startup needs.”

Newspace is booming as technology improves, costs fall, and private investors mostly hailing from the US are increasingly willing to invest in space.

Supporting and tapping into this wave of innovation will be important for the UK to meet ambitions of capturing 10% of the global space market by 2030, estimated to be worth some £400bn (US$582m) by then.

However, currently about 80% of the UK government’s investment in its space industry is routed via ESA, and Lawton believes this funding split should be reversed to galvanise the local market.

“If 80% of investment stayed within the UK and was deployed via low bureaucracy, fast-tracked means to come in alongside funding from the SME itself, this would turbo charge the UK space scene, whilst keeping the UK in the ESA club,” he said.

“Of course politically it’ll cause a storm, but disruption in any industry requires a challenge to the status quo. It feels as if the UK has the opportunity to take a significant com-petitive lead by unshackling access to funding from the old space ways of doing things when missions were invariably large, complex and costly. Let NASA, ISRO, JAXA and ESA con-tinue with the old school way of doing things and putting the brakes on their SMEs – the

UK could unleash the creative and entrepre-neurial power of its brightest companies.”

Responding to new needsESA is looking to increasingly accom-modate the needs of smaller and emerging players. A spokesperson pointed to the ‘Megaconstellations’ fast-track funding opportunity it announced in October as one example. This opportunity runs until 29 July 2016 and will explore ways Europe can tap into the stellar growth in small satellites.

ESA also runs two business incubators (ESA-BIC) – one in the UK and one in the Netherlands

Lawton welcomed these efforts, but pointed to how it could take as long as three months between submission to decision with an ESA-BIC as showing a lack of understanding of the financial pressures a startup is under.

He stressed that many in the agency understood the need to shift its approach to encourage and nurture SMEs, adding that OSS has worked with many pragmatic tech-nical officers.

OSS recently won a €1m (US$1.1m) co-funding deal from the UK’s space agency, subject to contractual negotiations with ESA that will act as technical observer and admin-ister the contract, to develop a commercial unfurlable satellite antenna outside the US.

Harris and Northrup Grumman-owned Astro Aerospace are the only two companies in the world currently offering such antennas, meaning the technology faces ITAR restrictions.

OSS expects to develop an engineering qualification model for its system before the end of next year.

In the meantime, the OSS team is counting down to the launch of AstroTube, the longest retractable cubesat boom system in the world, as an in orbit demonstrator on a spacecraft in July.

It believes it will be setting a record for going from material concept to flight payload demonstration in less than 30 months if everything goes to plan.

The company also recently won a con-tract to use its boom system for deploying electric propulsion from a microsat, as well as a pre-development deal with a customer in Asia to build an antenna based upon its flexible composite material.

“We expect both of these to translate into seven figure deals by late summer, with flight targeted at some point in late 2019,” Lawton said.

These revenues mean OSS could delay or scrap a series B round it had planned for Q2 2017.

Its oversubscribed £1.3m (US$1.9m) series A closed in September 2015, and came soon after it secured £500k (US£731k) in seed funding from VC firm Longwall Ventures and £100k (US$146k) in matched funding from Innovate UK, the UK govern-ment’s executive office for innovation.

Longwall Ventures has so far invested £1m (US$1.5m) in OSS. The rest of its funding has come from a consortium of VCs that include Rainbow Seed Fund, Stephenson Fund (IMechE) and IQ Capital.

Oxford Space Systems CEO says UK newspace tied down by ESA funding regimes

Oxford Space Systems CEO Mike Lawton

GROUND SEGMENT/ BRITISH VSAT FIRM NSSLGLOBAL CONSOLIDATES NORTH SEA PARTNER - PG. 20

/ TDF INFRASTRUCTURE PRICES €800M BOND TO ADDRESS BANK DEBT - PG. 20

/ KUDELSKI LOOKS WEST WITH MILESTONE BUY - PG. 20

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US M2M-focused MSS operator Orbcomm has continued its strategy of making acqui-sitions down the value chain by snapping up Skygistics, a distributor of satellite M2M systems in 23 different countries across Africa.

SatelliteFinance understands that Orbcomm will pay R59.5m (US$4.04m) for Johannesburg-based Skygistics and finance the deal with cash on hand. Skygistics is mostly backed by venture capital and has annual revenues of R60m (US$4.08m).

Skygistics has been a long-time partner of Orbcomm’s Canadian M2M service pro-vider SkyWave, another bolt-on purchased for US$130m in 2014, selling on its satellite connectivity solutions.

Orbcomm’s CEO Marc Eisenberg said the takeover of Skygistics, which it was advised on by Near Earth, was part of his company’s long-term strategy of becoming a leading global, full-service IoT provider.

“Adding incremental products and ser-vices to Skygistics’ infrastructure will build a stronger presence on the African continent, which is an important growing market,” Eisenberg added.

Skygistics is the eighth acquisition Orbcomm has made since March 2013 as it has looked to rapidly gain scale and move into new verticals.

The target’s chairman Kevin Eborall said the strength of the Orbcomm brand matched with Skygistics’ regional footprint and tech-nology made the transaction a great fit.

Eborall, a major Skygistics shareholder, said Orbcomm provided Skygistics with the products, solutions, support and technology to make a greater impact in the underserved African telematics market, and expected to be able to “vastly” grow the business and meet more of its customers’ needs.

At present Skygistics has 40 employees and serves around 250 telematics and enter-prise customers, with its services centred on the management of remote and mobile assets.

Orbcomm hopes to close the trans-action in May, which will also see it take ownership of Skygistics’ South African and Australian subsidiaries.

Since the SkyWave transaction 18

months ago, Orbcomm has bought WAM Technologies, which provides remote wireless management for shipping con-tainers, last October, and sensor software firm InSync for US$11m in January 2015.

Those deals were much smaller than the takeover of SkyWave, which was the biggest M2M service provider on Inmarsat’s L-band network at the time of the US$130m buyout with more than 250,000 subscriber units. A month prior to that Orbcomm sealed a US$160m loan from Macquarie that fea-tured a series of acquisition term loan facil-ities worth up to US$80m.

It has been looking down the value chain for M&A targets for a number of years. In March 2014 Orbcomm swallowed up Dutch transportation temperature monitoring firm Euroscan for US$29m, in October 2013 it snapped up the asset tracking operations of communications developer Comtech, and its acquisition spree began in March 2013 when it spent US$7.8m on value-added resellers GlobalTrak and MobileNet.

Rochelle Park, New Jersey-based Orbcomm released its full year 2015 results

in March, saying its financial performance had been boosted by its recent acquisitions of SkyWave, InSync and WAM Technologies.

Total revenues for the year were up 85% over the previous year reaching US$178m, adjusted EBITDA rose 139% to US$42.3m, and EBITDA increased 108% to US$19.4m, according to a company statement.

Orbcomm’s expansion plans have also been boosted by the news that its final 11 OG2 satellites entered commercial service in Q1. The launch of its second-generation fleet was delayed as its launch services pro-vider SpaceX had to push back its man-ifest after a failure last June saw Falcon 9 grounded for almost six months. SpaceX successfully placed Orbcomm’s payload in late December, a launch which also saw SpaceX successfully land the first stage of Falcon 9 after completing a mission.

The satellites completed the 17-strong OG2 constellation, designed to enhance its M2M network. The operator says it is now collecting more than 18 million AIS mes-sages from roughly 150,000 unique vessels every day.

Orbcomm bolts on Skygistics to expand in Africa

2016

2015

2014

2013

Skygistics | US$4m

SkyWave | US$130m

InSync | US$11m

MobileNet | US$5m

WAM Technologies | Undisclosed

GlobalTrak | US$2.8m

Euroscan | US$29m

SENS | Undisclosed

Orbcomm Acquisitions Since 2013

LAUNCH


World View closes US$15m series B for Stratollite solution

^ Spanish launch startup PLD Space has been awarded US$1.56m by the Spanish government to develop reusable engines.

PLD is working on Arion 1, a sin-gle-stage reusable suborbital launcher, and Arion 2, a three-stage vehicle capable of taking 150kg to LEO or 80kg to SSO. Its first orbital mission is scheduled for Q2 2020 and it aims to offer smallsat customers launches for less than US$40,000 per kilo.

PLD is looking for new US and European VC funds to invest and is working to open a US company. “We know that our competitors are strong in the US but there is a huge worldwide market to several players,” said Raul Torres, PLD’s CEO and co-founder.

^ United Launch Alliance has announced 375 redundancies as the Boeing-Lockheed Martin JV looks to become leaner and cut the price of its launches.

“As ULA continues our trans-formation, we have determined that a reduction in force is necessary,” a spokesperson said.

The job losses bring the size of ULA’s workforce down to around 3,000, which are spread across the Denver, Colorado-headquartered firm’s five facilities.

^ Elon Musk’s SpaceX reached two big milestones in April. First the company managed to recover the first stage of its Falcon 9 on an ocean platform as it moves closer to being able to reuse its launch boosters. Weeks later it won its first mission with the US Air Force.

The US$82.7m contract win will see SpaceX loft a GPS III satellite in May 2018, and breaks the hold United Launch Alliance has had on national security launches since its formation in 2006.

Lieutenant General Samuel Greaves, Air Force programme executive officer for space and SMC commander, said: “This GPS III Launch Services contract award achieves a balance between mission suc-cess, meeting operational needs, lowering launch costs, and reintroducing competi-tion for National Security Space missions.”

SpaceX won Air Force certification in May 2015, reintroducing competition to its awarding of missions. However, last November ULA said it would sit out the bidding for the GPS contract citing a variety of issues.

High-altitude balloon launch provider World View has raised US$15m from five investment firms to advance its strato-spheric satellite solution Stratollite.

Canaan Partners led the series B, alongside Base Ventures, Moment Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners and Tencent.

World View has previously been best known for Voyager, an eight-person bal-loon-based capsule designed for space tourism taking passengers to more than 100,000 feet.

The development of Stratollite is tar-geting more immediate returns, with World View marketing to commercial and gov-ernment customers looking for commu-nications, remote sensing, research and weather solutions.

World View noted that “while trillions of dollars are spent on applications in space and the troposphere, the stratosphere is vir-tually untapped”.

The company and its investors claim that no other craft at present can stay in one point in the stratosphere, whereas Stratollite can maintain a position over a specific area for days, weeks, and eventually months.

It has the ability to fly a variety of trajec-tories or stay put, launch rapidly on demand, and return payloads to Earth safely.

Proceeds from the series B will be used to accelerate the development and

commercial adoption of Stratollite.Deepak Kamra, general partner at

Canaan, said: “No other balloon, satellite or drone has been able to successfully complete long-endurance flight over a specific area of interest and safely return to Earth.

“World View is creating a brand new ‘above-earth’ economy that operates in an unutilised layer of space. The combination of innovative technology, the medium it’s being used in, and its commercial avail-ability have positive business and environ-mental impacts.”

Vab Goel, general partner at Norwest, said World View was “defining an entirely new market by enabling new use cases for the edge of space”.

Kamra, Goel and Tom Ingersoll – onetime CEO of Skybox Imaging – have all joined World View’s board.

In the near future World View plans to leverage its technology for private space explo-ration, enabling humans to visit near space.

Earlier in 2016 Arizona pledged to spend US$15m on building new head-quarters, a manufacturing facility and launch site this year for World View outside the Tucson International Airport, near to where it is currently based.

State officials expected World View to grow from around 25 employees to more than 400 over the next five years.

The balloon for World View’s Stratollite is unfurled


LAUNCH SCHEDULELAUNCH DATE LAUNCH PROVIDER SATELLITE MANUFACTURER BROKER

2016 Q2 SpaceX JCSAT-14 Space Systems Loral Marsh

2016 Q2 ILS Intelsat 31 (DLA-2) Space Systems Loral Aon ISB

2016 Q2 SpaceX ABS 2A Boeing Aon ISB

2016 Q2 SpaceXEutelsat 117 West B (Satmex 9)

Boeing Willis

2016 Q2 Arianespace EchoStar 18 / BRIsat Space Systems Loral Marsh

2016 Q2 SpaceX Thaicom 8 Orbital ATK Marsh

2016 Q2 ILS Echostar 21 Space Systems Loral

2016 Q3 Arianespace Intelsat 33e Boeing Aon ISB

2016 Q3 Arianespace PeruSat-1 Airbus DS

2016 Q3Lockheed Martin Com-mercial Launch Services

WorldView-4 Lockheed Martin

2016 Q3 SpaceX Amos 6Israel Aerospace Indus-tries

Marsh

2016 Q3 SpaceX Iridium NEXT F3 to F12 Thales Alenia Space Marsh

2016 H2 ISC Kosmotras Iridium NEXT F1/F2 Thales Alenia Space Marsh

2016 H2 SpaceX SES 11 / EchoStar 105 Airbus DS

2016 Q4 Arianespace Al Yah-3 Orbital ATK

2016 Q4 Arianespace Intelsat-36 Space Systems Loral Aon ISB

2016 Q4 Arianespace Telkom-3S Thales Alenia Space Marsh

2016 Q4 CGWIC Chinasat 9A (Sinosat 4) CAST Marsh

2016 Q4Lockheed Martin Com-mercial Launch Services

EchoStar XIX Space Systems Loral Marsh

2016 Q4 SpaceX Europasat / Hellas-sat 3 Thales Alenia Space JLT / Marsh / Willis

2016 Arianespace Hispasat AG1 OHB Systems Willis

2016 SpaceX BulgariaSat-1 Space Systems Loral Willis

2016 Arianespace JCSAT-15 Space Systems Loral Marsh

2016 SpaceX JCSAT-16 Space Systems Loral Marsh

2016 Arianespace Koreasat-7 Thales Alenia Space Marsh

2016 CGWIC Nicsat-1 CAST Marsh

2017 Q1 Arianespace Eutelsat 172B Airbus DS Willis

2017 Q1 Arianespace ViaSat-2 Boeing Aon ISB

2017 H1 Arianespace Hylas 4 Orbital ATK Marsh

2017 H2 SpaceX 2017 Sun Synch Express Spaceflight

2017 Q4 CGWIC SupremeSAT-2 CAST

2017 Q4 Arianespace BSAT-4a Space Systems Loral Willis

2017 Q4 / 2018 Q1

MHI KhalifaSat EIAST Marsh

2018 Q1 SpaceX Telstar 19 Vantage Space Systems Loral

2018 Q1 SpaceX Telstar 18 Vantage Space Systems Loral

2018 Q1 TBC Telkom-4 Space Systems Loral

2018 Q1 Arianespace O3b batch Thales Alenia Space

2018 CGWIC CongoSat-1 CAST

2018 Q3 TBC Eutelsat 7C Space Systems Loral

2019 Arianespace ARSAT-3 INVAP

2019 H2 TBC JCSAT-17 Lockheed Martin

2019 Q4 / 2020 Q1

Arianespace ViaSat-3 Boeing

2020 TBC Inmarsat-6 F1 Airbus DS

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Percent still in use by age (NB population segment specific)

Numbers of commercial satellites expected to reach end of design life by propellant type

MMH/MON Hz

Satellite Life Extension Analysis Analysis by Beechleaf Consulting

SPECIAL REPORT


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Ventures building businesses out of extending the life of in-orbit GEO communications and broadcast satellites pose interesting challenges for the insurance industry.

These companies are developing servicing satellites that either refill a spacecraft’s pro-pellant tanks before manoeuvring to another – spending only weeks for each refill visit – or remain attached to a client satellite for years at a time, providing a substitute manoeuvre capability for station-keeping.

The first concept offers the quickest returns and the second is less technically demanding, but in either case it is important to note that the client satellite will not be specially designed for rendezvous docking. A typical GEO satellite has a design life of 15 years, meaning there’ll be a long wait before the first “designed for rendezvous, capture and propellant transfer” types actually need life extension themselves.

The challenges here include collision avoidance, control loop shut-down and hand-over to the servicer, and robotic access to pro-pellant fill valves and propellant transfer.

As a result, in the early commercial exploitation, each capture and service pro-vision will be unique given that the client com-munications satellites are of varied designs.

The liability issues associated with docking two spacecraft are complex and not easily resolvable by simply asking the insurance community to provide a solution in the form of a policy that covers all of the potential risks.

Liability in space is a regulated regime pri-marily dealt with at state level by international conventions, the key ones being the Liability Convention 1972 and the Outer Space Act 1967. The state obligations filter down to the com-mercial level through licensing and governance.

In the commercial context, anyone offering in-orbit satellite servicing may need to provide their client with a full turnkey service or one that involves a degree of risk sharing. In our opinion the latter is the only feasible option, as risks not only concern the potential to cause damage to each party’s equipment – collision perils are likely to be excluded under asset policies – but include the commercial and legal consequences arising from a col-lision or other damage. Loading the insurance costs on the service provider will increase the mission costs and therefore the contract price.

If the service vehicle damages the client satellite this could introduce debris into the space environment. Under the international conventions mentioned, one or both parties (and ultimately their licensing states) would be liable if the debris caused personal injury or property damage to a third party – con-ventionally covered under a liability policy.

A bungled mission could also leave either party with inoperable hardware, which in the case of a multi-servicing vehicle may prevent a follow on mission from being carried out.

While the solutions will depend on the specific mission type, it is clear that cross waivers and risk sharing will be required in the commercial agreements. This will enable cost effective allocation of the risks to the insurance markets and serve to reduce the mission costs.

Insurance is after all the third largest project cost in most commercial missions. It is also likely to assist the regulators responsible for granting the respective launch licence if they can identify a clear division of responsibility.

Life extension is technically distinct from missions for debris removal as the latter must be able to capture tumbling objects. There may be more overlap with future inspection and repair concepts, especially for the pro-pellant transfer type of life extension which will use more sophisticated robotics.

The number of potential client satel-lites depends upon their intrinsic reliability and propellant type. However, many satel-lites are operated in late life without North South Station-Keeping to save propellant, which is a sound indicator of the demand for satellite servicing.

Neil Stevens is MD of the Space Fin con-sultancy and Duncan Smith is a technical spe-cialist at Beechlead Consulting

Analysis by Beechleaf Consulting

Satellite life extension services raise liability questions

Current maximum estimate of satellites in propellant economy measures

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INSURANCE

The proliferation of space ventures is opening up new sources of income for insurers but with it comes an unprecedented high degree of risk, according to the new head of space at underwriter Hamilton Insurance Group.

Bermuda-based Hamilton is officially opening its new offices in London on 11 May after buying Lloyd’s Syndicate 3334 underwriter last year, and diversifying it into space and other businesses.

Sima Adhya, who heads up space at the new Hamilton Underwriting Limited managing agency, said: “The current rating environment doesn’t provide much margin so insurers are left with the choice of either cautiously avoiding innovation, or embracing it if they believe that the suc-cesses will outweigh the costs of the inevi-table losses.”

Premium rates have been softening as capacity within the space insurance market has risen steadily from a low of US$300m in 2003 to a peak of around US$700m in 2013, where it has stayed fairly constant since.

“The very best risks continue to be highly competitively priced with some rates at or even below the burn rate,” Adhya noted.

This has helped boost satellite oper-ators who are also benefiting from cheaper launch costs and falling barriers to entry for companies with innovative technologies.

Adhya pointed to how operators have been able to get insurance on SpaceX’s new and unproven Falcon Heavy without paying crippling levels of insurance. The Falcon Heavy is effectively three times more powerful than their current Falcon 9 rocket and is due for its inaugural launch later this year.

Whilst the very first launch of the Falcon Heavy will not be insured, insurers are putting a lot of faith in SpaceX by com-mitting to fixed rates now regardless of the outcome of the initial launches.

But as with all insurance, rates are not set in stone and although recent space insurance claims have only impacted launches connected to Russian hardware, further failures could have a broader impact.

“Whilst the current low premiums are great for new companies, it wouldn’t take much for rates to hike on insurance for innovative and unproven technologies,” Adhya said.

“If this hasn’t been planned for then these changes could cripple fledgling

ventures who might no longer be able to get insurance for their launches.”

Adhya joined Hamilton in November 2015 from London-based underwriter Starstone (formerly known as Torus), where she was head of space. Her team consists of underwriters Mike Thorp and Jon Ashby, who were also previously at Starstone.

Before joining the insurance industry, where she also spent four years at data analytics and research-based underwriter Sciemus, she held roles at QinetiQ and the European Space Agency.

Syndicate 3334 was formerly a niche sports and leisure underwriter, but the multi-line syndicate now also writes property, accident & health, contingency, financial institutions, professional indemnity and treaty reinsurance, as well as space.

^ Willis Towers Watson has promoted Mark Quinn to lead its satellite insurance business after Roger Bathurst left for undisclosed reasons.

Bathurst headed up the broker’s Inspace unit for nearly seven years. There are rumours the insurance veteran is setting up his own space underwriting venture.

He joined Willis not long after International Space Brokers, which he led for more than a decade, was swallowed up by Aon (now Aon ISB) in 2008.

Quinn has been with Willis for around 20 years and will report to John Rooley, head of the broker’s global aerospace business.

Inspace was established 1977 as the first specialist space insurance broker in the world. It boasts seven international locations and sits in an aerospace team that comprises more than 200 “associates and leaders”, a spokesperson said.

Quinn will be based in Washing-ton DC.

^ A former partner at London-headquartered broker Baronsmead has launched an insurance advisory firm for commercial space and other specialist sectors.

Andrew Ducat said Duke Risk Consulting fills a gap in the market for more progressive and dynamic services that are not dependent on the sale of insurance products.

“Satellite development is time consuming, costly and complex, with myriad supply-chain interdepen-dencies,” he said.

“The management of these risks and their effective transfer via insurance contracts can make the difference between success and very real failure. The risks may be under-stood but are the insurance con-tracts intended to mitigate those risks equally understood?”

Ducat, who set up the venture after leaving his role as partner and head of client services last year at Baronsmead, which provides risk insurance to the alternative investment market, said Duke will also specialise in claims man-agement and cyber risk analysis.

Balancing risk and reward in newspace

Hamilton Underwriting Limited head of space Sima Adhya

“If this hasn’t been planned for then these changes could cripple fledgling ventures who might no longer be able to get insurance for their launches.”


REGULATORY ROUND-UP

PROVIDED BY:

“Space and satellite regulatory, commercial, corporate, IP, dispute resolution and finance specialists”Joanne Wheeler

Partner,Bird & Bird

EUROPEDenmark

^ New Danish space lawThe draft of the new Danish space law

has just had its third and final reading in Parliament (3 May 2016). The new law will come into force in the summer (1 July 2016).

Poland

^ Council for InnovationThe Polish space and satellite industry is

one of the key industries which will benefit from the activities of a newly appointed Council of Innovation.

The Council was appointed by Beata Szydło, the Polish Prime Minister, to coor-dinate the government’s innovation policy and comprises five key Ministers: the Minister of Development; the Minister of Culture and National Heritage; the Minister of Science and Higher Education; the Minister of Digital Affairs; and the Minister of Treasury. It will initiate actions and propose solutions that will actively assist entrepreneurs in search of new products, processes and markets in order to engage Polish capital.

One of the targets of this activity is the allocation of €16bn (US$18.4bn) coming from EU national and regional level pro-grammes, as well as domestic capital, with the aim of developing innovative projects and undertakings, including in the Polish space and satellite industry.

Contribution from Tomasz Prost, Associate, Poland

UK

^ Ofcom publishes update to the procedures for the management of satellite filings

The procedures came into effect on 30 March 2016 and amend the original doc-ument published in March 2007. They set out

the mechanism by which Ofcom, as the UK national administration to the ITU, manage satellite filings on behalf of companies and other entities registered in the UK, the British Overseas Territories, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. The procedures apply to existing and new filings.

Many of the amendments to the pro-cedures concern the obligation on appli-cants to evidence that their satellite project can be realised effectively within the rel-evant regulatory deadlines, and with the relevant technical and operational charac-teristics. The procedures specify additional management and technical due diligence deliverables which must be provided by any applicant at each stage of the filing process. An applicant must promptly inform Ofcom of any changes to its business plan that may affect the project milestones or technical parameters of the filing.

Ofcom may now allow the notification of filings where coordination with UK and/or non-UK satellite networks is not com-plete, and may allow the transfer of own-ership and control of a filing at Advanced Publication Information (API) stage.

Ofcom’s decision as to whether to notify a satellite filing for an NGSO system will depend on the number of satellites deployed: assessing the number of satellites deployed

against the minimum number of satellites required to provide the intended service.

^ Licensing of 2GHz MSS CGC for aeronautical use

Ofcom has consulted on proposals to authorise terrestrial base stations which allow direct air-to-ground MSS communi-cations to aircraft.

Ofcom proposes to publish a statement on the authorisation of aeronautical use of the 2GHz MSS spectrum, and notice on fees reg-ulations and make the necessary fees regula-tions before issuing a network 2GHz licence.

^ Statement on a framework for spectrum sharing

This statement, published on 14 April 2016, sets out the framework that Ofcom will use for identifying potential sharing opportu-nities in certain bands. Ofcom also released the Wireless Telegraphy Register in open format, providing a comprehensive record of all civil spectrum user rights.

Ofcom considered spectrum bands that could support new uses and where the framework could be applied and have iden-tified 3.8-4.2 GHz as an initial candidate. The band is currently being used by fixed services, fixed satellite services and a national spectrum licence for fixed wireless access services.

A call for input was published by Ofcom on 14 April 2016 on the 3.8-4.2 GHz band as a candidate band for enhanced spectrum sharing for potential new inno-vative applications.

^ European Commission - new decision concerning Galileo’s ground-based infrastructure

On 18 March 2016, the European Commission published an Implementing Decision (2016/413/EU) setting out the locations of the ground-based infrastructure for the Galileo programme. The location of such infrastructure was largely determined by a previous Implementing Decision of 23 February 2012 (2012/117/EU), which had taken into account the geographical and technical constraints of ensuring optimum distribution around the world, the presence of pre-existing installations and equipment suited to the assigned tasks, compliance with the safety requirements specific to each centre, and the national safety requirements of each member state.

Many of the amendments to the procedures concern the obligation on applicants to evidence that their satellite project can be realised effectively within the relevant regulatory deadlines

While the Galileo programme has moved from deployment phase to exploitation phase, new needs have emerged. For instance, it became necessary to establish a seventh centre named “Integrated Logistical Support Centre” in Belgium to ensure the central storage of the various items of equipment and replacement parts for the infrastructure.

Contribution from Willy Mikalef, Associate, France

ASIA PACIFICAustralia

^ Australian government taking steps to expand access to space intelligence and data

Two recent announcements have evi-denced increased attention in Australia on the importance of access to space intelli-gence and data.

Australia’s national geological agency, Geoscience Australia, announced the signing of a collaboration agreement with the European Space Agency (ESA) to guarantee regional access to data from ESA’s Sentinel sat-ellites. Geoscience Australia, in a consortium with Federal and State Governments and sci-entific agencies, will establish and maintain a data access and analysis hub fed by Sentinel data through the Copernicus programme. The intention is to make the collected data accessible by users in the Southeast Asia and South Pacific regions.

The Australian Department of Defence has released a report setting out a possible plan for an Australian satellite defence network, and a significant increase in spending on “space-based and space-enabled capabilities” and defence generally over the next decade. Currently Australia has no military satellites, but the plan contemplates sending one or more Australian-owned satellites into space to increase access to satellite intelligence. The plan has strong appeal as it would not only increase Australia’s satellite independence and self-sufficiency, but would also enhance its natural disaster detection and monitoring efforts.

Contribution from Wesley Houston, Associate, and Hamish Fraser, Partner, Australia

China

^ Satellite resources and China’s 13th Five Year Plan

For the first time, the management of satellite orbits and satellite-related frequency spectrum are mentioned by the Chinese Government in the recently published “13th Five Year Outline of the National Economic and Social Development Plan”. The plan outlines the major policy directions to be followed by China from 2016 to 2020.

The Plan specifically provides that, to assist China in developingcc done an ubiq-uitous wireless broadband network, China needs to reasonably plan the use of its sat-ellite-related resources such as frequency spectrum and satellite orbits.

The director of the Radio Administration Bureau (RAB) expanded on this policy direction, and stated that the following key actions in relation to satellite spectrum will be taken by the RAB in 2016:• there will be an official evaluation on

the efficient use of satellite frequency spectrum: trial evaluation took place in the Guangdong and Henan Provinces in 2015;

• there will need to be closer coordination on satellite frequency spectrum and satellite orbits, in particular, insofar as such coordination is required for high resolution Earth observation satellites and for the BeiDou (Northern Star) Navigation Satellite System (China’s homegrown GPS); and

• RAB will expedite the preparation of the draft “Administrative Regulations on the Coordination of the Registrations of Satellite Networks and Maintenance of Registration”, and amendment of the “Administrative Measures on the Establishment of Satellite Space Stations”.

There is however no mention that the satellite market will be liberalised. That being so, the recent liberalisation of certain segments of the broadband market to private domestic investors (a market that in the past was only opened to state-owned enterprises) means that foreign companies would now have more potential business partners than before.

Contribution from Michelle Chan, Partner, Hong Kong

REGULATORY ROUND-UP


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MANDATESCOMPANY EVENT MANDATED

Airbus DS Sells commercial satcoms unit Lazard

Amino Technologies Buys Entone for US$73m Canaccord Genuity

ASBC US$200m searchCobalt Corporate Finance / Globascope Partners / GKA Cap-ital

ASC Signal US$50m sale to CPI Philpott Ball & Werner

Astroscale US$35m VC funding INCJ / JAFCO

Arris US$2.1bn Pace merger Evercore / BofA Merrill Lynch

AzercosmosAzerspace-2 financing Export Development Canada

Azersky M&A loan Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation / Mizuho

BeIN Media Buys Digiturk Barclays

Bezeq YES takeover BofA Merrill Lynch / Amir Barnea

BlackBridge Sale to PlanetLabs BlackArch Partners / BMO

Bowenvale AsiaSat buyout Goldman Sachs / BofA Merrill Lynch

Broadcom Cellular baseband review JP Morgan

CalPERS Orbcomm exit Raymond James

Canal + / ITI Group TVN controlling stake sale BofA Merrill Lynch / JP Morgan

Carlyle

Booz Allen Hamilton stake sale

Citigroup / Barclays

AsiaSat stake acquisition Goldman Sachs / BofA Merrill Lynch

Cleeve Capital SSW takeover Strand Hanson

CMMBFinancing Chi Capital / Jefferies

Business strategy Delta Partners

Cobham £500m rights issue BofA Merrill Lynch / Jefferies

Com Dev Sale to Honeywell Canaccord Genuity

Com Dev mgmt Sale to Honeywell The Black Box Institute

Comtech Buys TCS Citigroup

Cyfrowy Polsat US$3.5bn refi Trigon

Descartes Labs US$5m series A Cultivian Sandbox (led round)

Dering Capital Financing for TDF deal BNP Paribas / Citi / Credit Suisse / Goldman Sachs

Double Eagle Acquisition US$500m fundraising Deutsche Bank / BofA Merrill Lynch

EchoStar Dish satellite deal Deutsche Bank

Emcore Asset sale Raymond James

Emrise board Asset sale The Benchmark Company / Hermes Capital Advisors

exactEarth IPO Canaccord Genuity

Frontier Buys Verizon assets JP Morgan / Greenhill & Co

Gilat Satellite Networks US$35m rights offeringAmerican Stock Transfer & Trust Company/ The Nominee Company of Discount Bank

Globalstar US$75m stock sale Financial West Group


New mandates in bold

MANDATES


COMPANY EVENT MANDATED

Globecomm Sale to Wasserstein & Co Needham & Co

HarmonicThomson Video Networks acquisition

LD&A Jupiter

Hera Systems Series A Firsthand Capital (led round)

Honeywell Talks to buy UTC Lazard / Centerview

Iceye US$2.8m series A True Ventures (led round)

IQE Acquisition talks Canaccord Genuity

Intelsat

Asset sale review Goldman Sachs

Various financing and balance sheet initiatives

Guggenheim Securities

US$1.25bn bond Goldman Sachs / Guggenheim / JP Morgan

Isotropic US$1m funding Waterlow Management

JSAT JPY20bn notesMitsubishi UFJ / Morgan Stanley / Nomura / Daiwa / SMBC Nikko

KacificECA/debt advising Portland Advisers

US$20m series A Caniwi Capital

L-3 Communications Sells government services unit Deutsche Bank

Leidos

Merger with Lockheed's IS&GS unit

Citigroup

Committed financing for Lockheed IS&GS unit merger

Citigroup / Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ / BofA Merrill Lynch / JP Morgan / Goldman Sachs /

Liquid Telecom US$150m loan Standard Chartered

Lockheed MartinMerger of IS&GS unit with Leidos

JP Morgan / Goldman Sachs

Macom Buys FiBest Evercore

MicrosemiUS$2.2bn PMC-Sierra bid Stifel

PMC-Sierra bid financing Morgan Stanley

Miteq Sale to L-3 OEM Capital

MTG CTC Media sale UBS

Naspers US$1.2bn bond Barclays / Citigroup

NewSat Administration PPB Advisory

Nitel Privatisation BNP Paribas / Eledas Capital Partners

O3b Networks US$460m facility Coface / Portland Advisers / Milbank

OneWeb US$500m series A Barclays

Optus A$250m bond ANZ / Citigroup / Commonwealth Bank of Australia / Westpac

Orbcomm Skygistics takeover Near Earth

Orbital ATK US$2.4bn refinancingWells Fargo / Citi / BofA Merrill Lynch / JP Morgan / US Bank / Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ / SunTrust Robinson Humphrey

Orbital Insight US$8.7m series A Sequoia Capital (led round)

Orbital Tracking US$1.1m fundraising Chardan Capital Markets

OSN US$400m financingMashreq / Barclays / BNP Paribas / Citibank / HSBC / National Bank of Kuwait

Pace US$2.1bn sale to Arris JP Morgan

Panasonic Buys ITC Global Centerview Partners

MANDATES


COMPANY EVENT MANDATED

Pico Digital Buys IDC assets Pantek Partners

PlanetiQ US$15m fundraising Raymond James

Process Fab Sale to Burtek Salem Partners

Protelindo Buys iForte Macquarie Capital

Providence M7 Group stake sale Deutsche Bank / BNP Paribas

Qualcomm Breakup reviewCenterview Partners / Boston Consulting Group / Goldman Sachs / Evercore

QinetiQ Strategic review Stone Key Partners

Rai Way Stake listing Credit Suisse / Banca IMI / Mediobanca

Raytheon Buys Websense RBC Capital Markets / Deutsche Bank

RCS&RDS €400m-€500m IPOCitibank / Deutsche Bank / Raiffeisen Bank / BRD / Wood & Co

Reltima and GPS North America

Sale to Telular Media Venture Partners

Riverbed TechnologyUS$3.6bn sale Qatalyst Partners / Goldman Sachs

Buyers’ US$525m notes Crédit Agricole / Citigroup / Barclays

Scripps Buys €1.42bn TVN stake Barclays / Blackstone Advisory Partners

Shaw Communications

Acquires Wind Mobile CIBC World Markets / TD Securities

Bridge facility for Wind MobileToronto Dominion Bank / Canadian Imperial Bank of Com-merce

Signalhorn €20m investment Metric Capital

SkyFi US$3m series A Jerusalem Venture Partners / Liberty Israel Venture Fund

SkyVision IPO Morgan Stanley / JP Morgan

SSW£2m loan Business Growth Fund

Two bolt-on deals in France Strand Hanson

Tata Sky US$300m listing Morgan Stanley / Citi / Kotak Mahindra Capital

TDF US$900m bond BNP Paribas / Société Générale

Technicolor M&A financing Goldman Sachs

TeleCommunication System Sale to Comtech Lazard

Teledyne US$125m private placement US Bancorp / Mitsubishi UFJ Securities

Thoma BravoRiverbed Technology acqui-sition

Kirkland & Ellis

TPG Capital/Axa Private Equity

TDF break-up review Goldman Sachs / Rothschild / BNP Paribas

Trimble Acquisitions Lazard

TW Telecom Sale to Level 3 Evercore / BofA Merrill Lynch

Utah State University STORM investment search Tempus Global Data

UTC Sale talks with Honeywell JP Morgan

Verizon Communications Asset sale to Frontier Credit Suisse / Guggenheim / PJT Partners

Videocon D2H IPO Axis Capital

Vista Websense sale Citigroup

Vitesse Sale to Microsemi Deutsche Bank / Needham & Company


SPACE SERVICES ^ Telefónica, which owns Spain’s

leading satellite broadcaster DTS, has promoted its chief operating officer José María Álvarez-Pallete to CEO following the resignation of César Alierta.

The Spanish company’s board of directors has also unanimously approved Álvarez-Pallete’s appointment as executive chairman of the company and chairman of the board and executive commission.

Alierta, who held the top job for almost 16 years, recommended Álvarez-Pallete as his successor, saying he is best placed to face the challenges of the digital market.

Álvarez-Pallete first joined the Telefónica Group in 1999. He has held roles in Telefónica Internacional, Telefónica Latin America, and Telefónica Europe. He has been group COO since September 2012 and been on the board since July 2006.

^ David Mizrahi, the CFO and deputy CEO of Bezeq, owner of Israel’s main satellite TV provider Yes, has resigned.

Mizrahi is stepping down to pursue other opportunities, but will stay in the role until his successor is named.

Commenting on his departure, CEO Shaul Elovitch said: “[David] was extremely successful in securing Bezeq’s position as a leading company in the Israeli capital market, while strengthening the company’s foreign shareholder base.”

^ Jeff Storey has returned to his role as CEO of Level 3 Communications, an ISP and telco that provides satellite and teleport services.

Storey had been on medical leave since late January after having surgery for a newly diagnosed heart condition.

Sunit Patel, Level 3’s CFO, became acting CEO in Storey’s absence.

^ Sky’s chief marketing, sales and digital officer Stephen van Rooyen has been promoted to CEO of the DTH provider’s UK and Ireland business.

He held his previous role for two years and, before that, spent three years as Sky’s managing director of sales and marketing.

Van Rooyen is now responsible for Sky’s consumer and business divisions across the British Isles, including all brand, mar-keting, customer acquisition and retention, as well as all Sky’s products across TV, enter-tainment and communications, and will report to group CEO Jeremy Darroch.

The newly created role puts Sky’s UK and Ireland business in line with its subsid-iaries in Germany and Italy, which both have their own CEOs.

SPACE SEGMENT

^ Canadian space technology firm MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates has recruited Howard Lance from private equity firm Blackstone to be its new CEO.

He will take over the role on 16 May, succeeding Daniel Friedmann who has been in the post for 21 years (See page 17).

^ Nicolas Chamussy will become EVP of Airbus’s space systems unit on 1 July.

He will take over from François Auque, who has led Airbus’s space and satellite activities for the past 16 years.

Chamussy is currently chief of staff to Airbus’s CEO Tom Enders, who called him one of the group’s “most talented and ver-satile younger-generation executives”.

Enders said: “Over the last four years, he has been directly reporting to me and I am convinced that Nicolas is the right man to build on François Auque’s legacy at the helm of our Space business and to take this dynamic business forward successfully.”

Enders has asked Auque to stay on in an advisory capacity and remain on Airbus’s board until 2018, which Auque has agreed to.

GROUND SEGMENT

^ LEO-to-ground transmission startup BridgeSat has recruited Joseph Camagna to lead the development of its ground station network.

He joins as SVP of operations from Global Ground Systems, a company founded by Campagna specialising in the design of satellite ground systems for com-mercial and government clients.

In the past he has held senior management positions at Vectronix, Orbital Sciences, Motorola-Iridium Satellite Communications and the US Air Force.

Roger Yang, BridgeSat’s co-general manager and VP at its parent company Allied Minds, commented: “Joe’s leadership and experience with complex ground net-works and operations makes him ideally suited to the challenges of creating our optical communications network.”

INSURANCE ^ Willis Towers Watson has

promoted Mark Quinn to head its satellite insurance business following the resignation of Roger Bathurst, who left in April for undisclosed reasons.

Quinn has helped grow the broker’s Inspace business since the early 1990s.

John Rooley, head of Willis’s global aerospace business, said: “I am delighted that Mark has been appointed to lead this business, his specialist industry experience and unique insurance market knowledge will ensure that Willis Towers Watson con-tinues to focus on delivering the very best strategies to help the space industry quantify, mitigate and transfer risk.”

See the insurance section on page 27 for more.

LAUNCH

^ Engine maker Aerojet Rocketdyne has appointed M&A specialist Arjun Kampani as VP, general counsel and corporate secretary.

Kampani previously held a similar role at General Dynamics Land Systems, and has helped the group complete more than 30 acquisitions and divestitures as its top M&A lawyer.

He began his legal career with New York law firm Olshan Frome Wolosky, and later joined Thelen, Reid and Priest where he honed his focus on business transactions, securities, mergers and acquisitions and corporate governance.

He moved into the industry by joining US government IT systems and services pro-vider Anteon International Corporation, which was later bought by General Dynamics.

Aerojet Rocketdyne CEO and President Eileen Drake said: “Arjun’s impressive range of legal expertise will be a tremendous asset to Aerojet Rocketdyne in this pivotal time of growth for our industry and our company as we push the bound-aries of space exploration and expand our nation’s missile defense capabilities.”

Kampani replaces Christopher Cambria, who is leaving the company for undisclosed reasons.

^ European launch provider Arianespace has bolstered its management team to tackle increasing international competition. See page 23 for details.

EXECUTIVE MOVES


INDEXAAeroflex Holding .....................16Aerojet Rocketdyne ................33Agile Aero ................................22AIAC .........................................21Airbus ....................11, 12, 17, 33Airbus Safran Launchers .......23Alterna’TV ...............................15Arden Partners ........................15Arianespace...................4, 23, 33Astro Aerospace ......................18Avanti ........................................11

BBase Ventures...........................24Bezeq .........................................33Bigelow Aerospace ..................17Blackstone ................................33BNP Paribas .............................20Boeing .......................................21BofA Merrill Lynch .................16BRD ...........................................15BridgeSat ..................................33Burleson Energy ........................7Business Growth Fund ...........15

CCanaan Partners ......................24Canal+ ............................... 13, 15Caniwi .........................................4CGWIC ............................... 6, 14Citibank ....................................15Cobham ....................................16Com Dev ..................................11Commercial Spaceflight

Federation ............................22Crédit Agricole ........................20Creotech Instruments ..............7

DDanlaw ......................................15Deutsche Bank.........................15Digital Tech Fund .....................5Disney .......................................12Duke Risk Consulting ............27

Ee2v .............................................11Effective Space Solutions .......14Eton Park ..................................15European Space Agency ...........6Expon Capital ............................5

FFirefly ........................................22

GGarvey Spacecraft

Corporation.........................23

HHamilton Underwriting

Limited .................................27Harris ........................................18Harris CapRock .........................8

IInmarsat ...................................12Intelsat.......................................14Iridium ........................................5

JJefferies .....................................16

KKacific .........................................4KDDI Corporation .................15Khrunichev ................................4Kirkland Ellis ...........................21Kudelski ....................................20Kvaerner ...................................21

LLevel 3 Communications .......33Lloyds Bank .............................20

MMacDonald, Dettwiler and

Associates ............................33Mediaset Premium .................13Milbank ......................................7Milestone Systems ...................20Moment Ventures ...................24

NNBCUniversal .........................12Near Earth ................................19Next Gen Launch Coalition ..22NigComSat .................................6Norwest Venture Partners .....24NSSLGlobal ..............................20

OO3b Networks ...........................7OneWeb ....................................17Orbcomm .................................19Orbital ATK ...................... 14, 22Oxford Space Systems ............18

PPEMRA ....................................14Paramount Pictures ................12PLD Space ................................24

RRaiffeisen Bank ........................15Rapita Systems .........................15RBS ............................................20RCS&RDS ................................15Rocket Lab ...............................22Roscosmos .................................4Rostelecom ...............................15RSC Energia .............................21RSCC ...........................................4

SSSW ...........................................15Sea Launch ...............................21SES ...............................................7Sky .............................................33Sky and Space Global ...............7Skygistics ..................................19SkyWave ...................................19Société Générale ......................20Sojitz Corporation ..................15Sony ...........................................12Space Logistics .........................14SpaceX ......................................24SSL ...............................................7Strand Hanson .........................15Surrey Satellite Technology ....11

TTDF Infrastructure .................20Telefónica .................................33Telesat .........................................7Telespazio .................................11Tencent .....................................24Thales Alenia Space ................11Twentieth Century Fox ..........12

UUK Electronic Solutions ........20United Launch Alliance ... 17, 24Upper Atmosphere Research

Commission ........................14US Air Force ..................... 22, 24US Space ...................................14

VVector Space Systems .............23ViaSat ..........................................6Virgin Galactic ........................22Vivendi .....................................13ViviSat .......................................14Vostoktelecom .........................15

WWarner Bros .............................12Wayne Quasha .........................15Willis Towers Watson ...... 27, 33Wood & Co ..............................15World View ..............................24

YYes ..............................................33Yuzhnoye ..................................21

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