SES legal action against Intelsat’s affiliates?
December 9, 2020
By Chris Forrester
SES could extend its legal action currently against Intelsat to Intelsat’s affiliate businesses and even to major shareholders. The threat is included in the SES filing deposited with Intelsat’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy reconstruction court on December 4th.
SES is alleging a breach of contract claim against Intelsat over the division of revenues associated with the reallocation of satellite frequencies for 5G adoption.
Intelsat firmly denies the SES allegations.
The December 4th filing by SES states: “Now that the FCC has decided to pursue a public auction for clearing the C-Band and awarded Intelsat a greater share of the accelerated relocation payments, Intelsat wants to rewrite the deal it struck with SES. It cannot do so. And it is not the place of the Court to rewrite the [50/50] Agreement.”
SES [in Para# 147] argues that a “consortium member or its affiliates can be liable for breach of fiduciary duty” and that Intelsat’s various subsidiary or associated/affiliated companies could be included in its action. This could be extended to Intelsat’s debtors. SES states [#170]: “Any non-signatory Intelsat Debtor that either induced Intelsat US LLC to renege on its contractual commitments under the Agreement, or seeks to obtain and withhold from SES C-Band payments in excess of Intelsat’s agreed share, is liable to SES for tortious interference with contract.”