Inmarsat confirms that the final approval process for the acquisition of the company by funds advised by Apax Partners and Permira has been successfully completed, following overwhelming support for the transaction from shareholders on 1 December and official Court approval for the Scheme of Arrangement on 16 December.
Funds advised by Apax Partners and Permira respectively, together with Inmarsat shareholders which validly elected to rollover their holdings, will as shareholders in Duchessgrove Limited own the share capital of Inmarsat through Grapeclose Limited. Consideration is expected to be despatched to former Inmarsat shareholders on 30 December 2003.
Andrew Sukawaty, currently Chairman of Telenet NV and Deputy Chairman of mmo2, will become non-executive Chairman of the new Inmarsat Group. He will work closely with Michael Storey, Inmarsat’s CEO to continue the development of the company’s strategy to be the world’s leading mobile satellite communications company by continuing with plans to launch the Inmarsat-4 satellites and the next generation of high speed data and voice services — the Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) service.
Inmarsat Ventures Ltd is a leading provider of global mobile satellite communications services. Its services include voice, fax, intranet and internet access and other data services used by multinational corporations, government agencies, media and international aid organisations and other enterprise level users in the maritime, land and aeronautical sectors.
Apax Partners is one of the world’s leading private equity investment groups, operating across Europe, Israel, the United States and Japan. Permira is a leading international private equity specialist and is owned and controlled by its partners.
In October 2003, Permira announced the final closing of a third pan-European fund, Permira Europe III, which, together with commitments from Permira, totals over EUR5 billion and is Europe’s largest private equity fund.
