NEW YORK-New Skies Satellites N.V., a commercial spinoff of Intelsat, became a publicly traded company Oct. 4 when it sold 28.5 million American Depositary Shares priced at $9 each.
The offering, lead-managed by Goldman Sachs & Co., went to market only three weeks after filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The satellite company sold the number of shares it registered for at the low end of the anticipated $9-$11 price range.
Incorporated in the Netherlands and headquartered in The Hague, New Skies operates five geosynchronous satellites in fixed orbits. It has rights to six additional orbital positions, of which five are located over the Western Hemisphere and one over the Indian Ocean.
In March, New Skies acquired AAPT Sat-Tel Pty. Ltd., now called New Skies Networks Pty. Ltd., which owns and operates six ground stations in Australia.
In 1999, its first full year of operations, New Skies derived about 77 percent of its revenues from video transmissions.
The company estimated that 66 percent of its new business in 1999 and 71 percent during the first half of 2000 resulted from Internet traffic.
New Skies’ principal shareholders are primarily signatories and investors in Intelsat. These include Lockheed Martin Global Telecommunications, whose stake dropped to 14.5 percent from the 18.6 percent it held prior to the initial public offering.
Stichting Administratiekantoor NSS, the next largest stakeholder, reduced its position to 10.1 percent from 12.9 percent. British Telecommunications plc now owns 5.6 percent, down from 4.4 percent, and Telecom Italia SpA holds 4 percent, down from 5.1 percent.
