BC Partners, the UK private equity firm, was on Monday close to announcing the purchase of Intelsat for about $16bn, including debt, after outbidding several strategic buyers in a heated auction for the Bermuda-based fleet of satellites. BC edged out offers from other private equity groups as well as Loral, the New York-based satellite group, and a joint bid by Liberty Media and EchoStar Communications. A deal would be BC’s largest acquisition outside Europe. While US private equity groups have expanded significantly in Europe and Asia in recent years, European buy-out groups have been slower to make US investments. BC would pay about $5bn in equity and $11bn in assumed debt for Intelsat, people familiar with the matter said.

This entry was posted by Gwen Robinson on Tuesday, June 19th, 2007 at 5:47 and is filed under Capital markets, M&A, Private equity. Tagged with echostar communications, intelsat, l'oreal, liberty media. Edit this entry.