Having purchased the Hong Kong-based but Bermuda headquartered regional satellite operator Asia Broadcast Satellite (ABS) firm for US$242 million in 2010, at the end of May the private equity firm Permira put the ABS firm up for sale. The firm is expected to sell for circa US$1.5 billion. The search for a buyer is now on.
The ABS firm which just launched a Boeing built all-electric ABS-2A satellite on a shared Falcon 9 launch, currently has a fleet of six satellites. The satellites were purchased as a cooperative for satelite batch with Satmex (now Eutelsat) allowing both operators to use a bulk purchase to hold down costs with the launches shared on Falcon 9 launches for only US$30 million launch cost per satellite.
Not everything has gone their way however. An attempt to purchase the ABS-8 Direct-to-Home (DTH) broadcasting satellite from Boeing ended in failure following the suspension of the US Ex-Im bank by the US Congress.
