Milbank Closes US$245 Million Satellite Financing
Successful Closing for ProtoStar Ltd. Will Enable the Company to Launch and Operate its Second Satellite and Increase its Presence in the Asian State-of-the-Art Television Market
WASHINGTON, DC, April 10, 2008 – In a highly challenging Asian debt market, Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP successfully closed a US$245 million satellite financing for ProtoStar Ltd. (“ProtoStar”), to enable it to launch and operate the ProtoStar II satellite, thus positioning ProtoStar as a dual-satellite company in the Asian state-of-the-art television market.
Milbank has represented ProtoStar, a Bermuda company with its management offices in San Francisco and Singapore, almost since its inception and has assisted the company in virtually all aspects of the development of its satellite business including representing ProtoStar in its September 2006 financing for the ProtoStar I satellite (expected to launch in June 2008) in order to lease capacity to Direct-To-Home (DTH) providers in the rapidly growing Asian DTH market.
The new debt facility consisted of a US$200 million term loan with Credit Suisse serving as Sole Bookrunner and Co-Lead Arranger, and Jefferies & Co. acting as Co-Lead Arranger. The placement brought together a syndicate of lenders from Asia, Europe and the U.S. The debt facility also involved the refinancing of outstanding bridge indebtedness, and a $45 million equity financing. With the funds from the new financing, the development of the ProtoStar II satellite is now fully funded, enabling the launch in early 2009.
Commenting on the overall transaction, Glenn S. Gerstell, head of Milbank’s communications team and managing partner of the Firm’s Washington, DC office, stated, “The completion of this financing was quite a feat given the challenges presented by the current volatile Asian debt market and the complexities of negotiating a term loan facility across multiple time zones, a refinancing of a bridge facility and a new round of equity financing. The transaction necessitated deft communication and coordination among all counsels on a global scale. We were happy to play a part in bringing ProtoStar’s satellite services to Asia, so households from India to Indonesia to the Philippines will have direct satellite TV reception.”
The Milbank team representing ProtoStar was led by partner Glenn S. Gerstell and included partners James H. Ball and Dara A. Panahy and associates Gavin McKeon and Andrea Trujillo of the Washington, D.C. office and Ellie J. Kwack of the New York office. Cooley Godward Kronish LLP led the equity financing as ProtoStar’s equity counsel and Appleby served as ProtoStar’s local counsel in Bermuda. Linklaters LLP in Singapore represented Credit Suisse, with Cox Hallett Wilkinson as Credit Suisse’s Bermudan counsel.
Milbank’s Global Satellite and Telecommunications Team is a regular winner of “Deal of the Year” awards and is also recognized as one of the leading satellite and telecoms practices worldwide.
About Milbank
Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP is a preeminent global law firm that for more than 140 years has provided innovative legal solutions in many of the world’s largest, most complex, “first-ever” corporate transactions and litigation. Our transactional expertise includes capital markets, corporate finance and transactions, project finance, acquisition finance, and other major fields of law practice. Milbank litigation teams resolve disputes involving mergers and acquisitions, proxy battles, financings and securities offerings, intellectual property, white collar crime, and corporate restructurings, among others. Our clients range from prominent multinational financial, industrial and commercial enterprises to governments, institutions and individuals. The Firm is headquartered in New York with offices in Beijing, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Munich, Singapore, Tokyo, and Washington, DC.