Serafina Holdings, a venture formed by BC Partners, has completed its $5 billion acquisition of Intelsat Holdings, the world’s leading provider of fixed satellite services, officials said Monday.
Following the closing, Intelsat’s current executives will remain in place and have an equity interest in Serafina Holdings, which is expected to be renamed Intelsat Global Ltd.
Serafina Holdings is an entity that was formed by funds advised by BC Partners, Silver Lake and several other equity investors.
Last June, BC Partners won the bidding to acquire a majority stake in Intelsat, beating a joint bid made by Liberty Media and EchoStar Communicatons.
As part of the acquisition, Intelsat shareholders Apax Partners Worldwide, Apax Partners, Apollo Management, Madison Dearborn Partners and Permira Advisers will sell their interests in the company.
Immediately following the consummation of the transaction, Intelsat Ltd. assumed certain debt obligations entered into by Serafina Holdings to effect the transaction and refinance certain existing debt of Intelsat. The assumed debt includes a bridge financing comprised of two tranches, a $2.805 billion cash pay senior unsecured bridge loan and a $2.155 billion PIK election bridge loan.
Credit Suisse acted as financial advisor to Intelsat in connection with the transaction. Intelsat’s legal advisors included Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz, Milbank, Tweed, Hadley and McCoy LLP, Wiley Rein LLP, and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP. Merrill Lynch & Co. and Perella Weinberg Partners LP acted as financial advisors, Latham & Watkins LLP as legal advisor and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as accounting and tax advisor to the acquiror.
BC Partners is an international private equity firm operating through teams based in Geneva, Hamburg, London, Milan, New York and Paris.
Silver Lake is a leader in large private investments in technology, technology-enabled, and related growth industries.
