Duty is an old fashioned word normally reserved for talk of public service but, in fact, it is a very common word in business law and regulation. Company directors have many duties and regulators have the duty to ensure they abide by them. Some regulators and, theoretically, all politicians have a wider duty to prioritise […]
February 26th was another bad day for investors in Intelsat. Its already plummeting share price fell a dramatic 20 per cent, from $2.14 to $1.69 and taking its market capitalisation down to $181 million. The fall means that Intelsat’s share price has tumbled over the past 12 months from $12.93 to its current $1.69. However, […]
These are troubled times for Intelsat. February 25th saw further dramatic falls in its share price on the New York Stock Exchange despite reporting that it had appointed Guggenheim Securities to make a complete examination of its financing structure. On February 22nd its share price tumbled from $2.93 to $2.54, although it recovered somewhat as […]
Canal Plus has been though some choppy waters just lately, losing some very senior managers in the process and major shareholder Vivendi’s Vincent Bolloré issuing some stark warnings at the end of last week over the broadcaster’s future. “[Vivendi] cannot on a long term basis continue to finance the losses of Canal+ channels in France.” […]
London-based speciality satellite operator Avanti Communications has suffered a bad week on the London stock market. February 18th saw its already struggling share price drop below the psychologically important £1 mark, to 97p. The price represents an ‘all time low’ for Avanti, and reflect a 56 per cent fall since July last year. The 3.24 […]
Nigeria’s Federal government says it will not now privatise the nation’s satellite system. The decision affects Nigerian Communications Satellite Ltd (NigSatCom), based in the country’s capital city, Abuja. Nigeria’s Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, says any plan to sell the company and its facilities would be an attempt to short-change Nigerians. Towards the end of […]
Telesat of Canada has won a significant order from Panasonic Avionics. The order covers “almost all” of Telesat’s satellite bandwidth on its Telstar-12 Vantage spacecraft. The bandwidth will be used by Panasonic to deliver in-flight entertainment to aircraft passengers over Europe, the Middle East and Mediterranean regions. Telstar-12 was launched towards the end of last […]
This coming Wednesday will see satellite operator Eutelsat unveil its half-year results. February 14th saw Australian investment bank Macquarie reaffirm its ’Outperform’ rating on Eutelsat. It is not alone. February 15th saw equity analysts at Exane/BNP-Paribas reiterate “BUY” for Eutelsat in a note to clients. They are expecting Eutelsat’s results to be a “significant positive” […]
Last week, the ITU’s Radio Regulations Board (RRB) approved a controversial proposal from Egypt that it could build and launch a satellite to the 35.5 degrees East orbital slot. The satellite would be the first of a six-satellite system. The decision is contentious in that Egypt’s application to launch the satellite was well out of […]
February 9th saw a major announcement from Eutelsat and California-based ViaSat which sees the two satellite operators coming together in a strategic partnership designed to promote and develop satellite-delivered broadband over Europe. One well-placed analyst thinks it could be the harbinger of even greater co-operation between the two, and even mentions the possibility of a […]