Advanced Television

SES drops $1.35bn claim against Intelsat

December 8, 2021

By Chris Forrester

The opening day of Intelsat’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy exit plan Confirmation Hearing saw Judge Keith Phillips’ hear explanations from Steven Serajeddini, one of Intelsat’s lawyers, that SES would scrap its demand for Intelsat to pay “punitive damages” to SES of $1.35 billion (€1.19bn).

The withdrawal of the claim means that Intelsat, as its part of the agreement, would modify how its assets are distributed once a bankruptcy exit is approved by the court.

Intelsat License LLC, as part of the Intelsat family of businesses, is the official recipient of the FCC’s incentive payments for clearing key C-Band frequencies. Intelsat License is already due to receive $1.198 billion for the Phase I clearing exercise.

SES is seeking half of the ‘extra’ overall $897 million awarded to Intelsat License. However, SES had struck its C-Band Alliance “Consortium Agreement” with Intelsat US (and not Intelsat License). Now, with the modifications agreed, the Court can permit SES to argue its case for compensation against three Intelsat-related businesses: Intelsat Jackson Holdings, Intelsat License and Intelsat US.

The proposal before the court is that $950 million is now up for re-distribution and SES can mount a claim for a portion of this sum.

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