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To: djane who wrote (6178)	7/27/1999 10:33:00 PM
From: djane	Respond to of 29987

*Motorola Offers to Inject $400 Mln in Iridium, Investors Say Top>Business and Finance>Stocks>Services>Communications Services>IRID (Iridium World Comm. Ltd.) Motorola Offers to Inject $400 Mln by: prieur 22115 of 22136 Motorola Offers to Inject $400 Mln in Iridium, Investors Say Washington, July 27 (Bloomberg) -- Motorola Inc. last week offered to put another $400 million into cash-strapped Iridium LLC if bondholders agree to swap $1.5 billion in debt for a 25 percent stake in the global satellite-telephone company, said investors familiar with the plan. Motorola's proposal, made to a group that owns two-thirds of Iridium's bonds, calls for the world's second-largest cellular- phone maker to increase its stake in Iridium to 40 percent from 18 percent, the investors said. Motorola, which has written off at least $126 million of its $2.2 billion in financial guarantees to Iridium, declined to comment. Iridium spokeswoman Michelle Lyle said the information about Motorola's proposal is ''inaccurate,'' and declined to elaborate. Iridium Chief Financial Officer Leo Mondale said yesterday that Iridium is negotiating with its creditors. Under Iridium's plan, equity holders would receive some compensation, he said. ''I doubt the bondholders will be interested'' in Motorola's proposal, said William Kidd, an analyst at C.E. Unterberg Towbin, who has a ''sell'' rating on Iridium. ''That sounds ludicrous.'' The bondholders include Alliance Capital Management LP and Conseco Capital Management, according to one investor. Those companies couldn't immediately be reached for comment. The Motorola proposal, called Project Asteroid, would give Iridium enough money to stay afloat and help it avoid a court- imposed reorganization, which could take years to resolve. Iridium has been unable to attract subscribers because of the high cost of its phones and expensive per-minute charges, though it recently cut the price of its service and products. It has said also that the threat of bankruptcy is hampering sales efforts. Terms Shareholders of Iridium World Communications Ltd., the publicly traded arm of Iridium, would see their 14 percent stake in the parent company shrink to almost zero, the investors said. Shares of Iridium World have fallen almost 90 percent in the past 12 months to 6 5/16, a loss of more than $400 million in market value. Motorola is one of 19 companies with an equity investment in Iridium LLC. Under its proposal, the other 18 equity investors would have to agree to have their stake reduced to 35 percent from 68 percent. That group includes the so-called gateway operators -- Veba AG of Germany, Sprint Corp. and other companies that connect Iridium's satellites to public-telephone networks and hold the licenses for Iridium service. Motorola, based in Schaumburg, Illinois, helped found the company in 1987 and has been the marquee name behind the initiative ever since. Motorola makes some of Iridium's phones and also has a $2.5 billion operations-and-maintenance contract with Iridium. Chase Manhattan Corp. and Barclays Plc organized $800 millions in loans to Iridium. Payment on the loans are currently in a third extension period, which ends Aug. 11. Posted: 07/27/1999 08:36 pm EDT as a reply to: Msg 22114 by esqladyq

To: djane who wrote (6178)	7/27/1999 10:53:00 PM
From: djane	Respond to of 29987

China, U.S. Agree U.S.'s Daley To Visit Beijing This Yr (via Q* thread) July 27, 1999 Dow Jones Newswires BEIJING -- A senior U.S. Commerce Department official said Tuesday after a day of talks in Beijing that Sino-U.S. normal trade relations are back on track and Commerce Secretary William Daley will visit China later this year. But David Aaron, an undersecretary of the U.S. Commerce Department, told reporters after his talks with Chinese officials that his talks were about normal trade relations and that the stalled World Trade Organization accession came up only "tangentially." He said the U.S. hopes to resume talks on China's WTO accession, but he "got no particular indication as to what their timetable might be if any" in his talks with Chinese trade negotiator Shi Guangshen and other officials. The U.S. Trade Representatives Office, not the Commerce Department, has been taking the lead on Sino-U.S. negotiations over China's bid to join the Geneva-based trade rules organization. Talks have been stalled since the North Atlantic Treaty Organization bombed China's embassy in Belgrade. NATO said the bombing was a mistake, but China hasn't accepted U.S. explanations or apologies. Aaron said a date hasn't been set for Daley's visit, although the two sides have agreed to hold it this year, possibly as early as this fall. Daley, who last traveled to Beijing in late March with a delegation of U.S. business executives, will co-chair a meeting of the bilateral Commission on Commerce and Trade in the Chinese capital, Aaron said. "This is an important step which puts our commercial discussions firmly back on track," Aaron said. Aaron said that the committee has made important progress on a number of issues in the past year. He said it was instrumental in gaining an agreement from China to deploy the U.S. mobile phone standard code division multiple access, known as CDMA, and in securing licenses earlier this year for two more U.S. insurance companies to do business in China. Aaron's visit, he said, "will enable us to resume making that kind of progress." Some foreign industry executives have accused the government of being slow to implement their agreement to deploy CDMA. But Aaron, who also met with top officials from China's Ministry of Information Industry, said he felt the agreement was not threatened. "I believe the Chinese government has made a fundamental decision that they want CDMA for mobile telephony. They made that very clear," he said. But Chinese officials also made it clear that the CDMA decision is "related to china's accession to the WTO," Aaron said. "So I wouldn't be surprised if we need to see further progress on that front for some of these issues such as CDMA to go forward expeditiously." Aaron said WTO also came up in discussions over China's hopes that the U.S. will grant China permanent normal trading status - the new name for most favored nation trading status (NTR). U.S. President Bill Clinton has proposed NTR extension for China this year, and Aaron said he expressed confidence to Beijing that Congress wouldn't veto that decision. He also pointed out that once China enters the WTO, its will automatically be granted NTR on a permanent basis. Today's talks also covered the problem of $1.4 billion invested by U.S. companies in China United Telecommunications Co., or China Unicom. Those U.S. companies had skirted restrictions placed on foreign investment in Chinese telecommunications, and Beijing has since clamped down on these investments, leaving the companies little recourse to recoup their capital. The issue is a key hurdle to China Unicom's plans to list shares on overseas stock markets later this year. Aaron said China's officials view the issue as a negotiation between China Unicom and the foreign investors on how to "terminate those contracts." "This is not a debate about ideology or principal, it's a question of restructuring those relationships and going forward from there," Aaron said.

To: djane who wrote (6178)	7/27/1999 10:59:00 PM
From: djane	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29987

ICO May Go To Key Partners And Vendors For New Funds Top>Business and Finance>Stocks>Services>Communications Services>ICOGF (ICO Global Communications) ICO - From Communications Daily by: shaggy_64 (M/USA) 490 of 493 07/27/99 -- ICO is likely to turn to strategic partners and vendors for financing, rather than extend its $500 million rights offering 3rd time, analysts said. ICO twice has had to extend offering that would enable current institutional shareholders to buy shares at $5 each. Deal, managed by Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, was to have closed June 4, but was extended to June 24 when company raised only $407 million of $500 million required to complete offering. When it was clear June 24 deadline would fail to produce required subscribership, offer was extended to July 27 (today). Because rights offering still was open Mon., ICO declined to comment on whether it would be able to close offering today or on what other steps it might take to secure financing. However, there was consensus among analysts that company's difficulty in closing deal was related to increased caution among institutional investors following poor performance of Iridium, with which ICO would compete in satellite telephony. Rather than extend offering again, ING Barings satellite industry analyst Robert Kaimowitz said he believed ICO will seek to raise as much as $750 million from its service partners and vendors, which could give contributors "supervoting rights" on company's board and enable them to steer ICO's strategic direction. "Any time a company raises money, there is a corresponding transfer of autonomy that cedes to the backers," another analyst said: "Occasionally, you end up with too many competing interests and companies losing sight of their original mission." Although it was unclear which parties ICO might approach for new funds, its key vendors include Deutsche Telekom (satellite access nodes), Ericsson (ground stations), Hughes (satellite construction), NEC (handsets). Its main investors are Emirates Telecom, Inmarsat (which owns 9.5% of ICO), Singapore Telecom* [Interesting...], TRW, VSNL of India. Hershel Shosteck, pres. of wireless industry analyst firm Shosteck Assoc., said ICO was likely to succeed in raising new funds because it and Globalstar have "fewer burdens" than Iridium and as result "look better in the eyes of Wall Street." However, he said, fundamental question for all operators remains: "Is there sufficient demand for their services to enable them to stay in business?" Shosteck said answer is: "No. We can't find a sustainable market there." Continuing build-out of terrestrial mobile networks and Inmarsat's "already existing installed base" mean mobile satellite business plans don't withstand scrutiny, he said. [Okay, don't fund ICO and let G* have a crack at it with only the critically wounded IRID...] Posted: 07/27/1999 12:14 pm EDT as a reply to: Msg 489 by sathood

To: djane who wrote (6178)	7/27/1999 11:00:00 PM
From: djane	Respond to of 29987

ICO satellite manufacturing status Top>Business and Finance>Stocks>Services>Communications Services>ICOGF (ICO Global Communications) LCooper, your source is wrong. by: mrsatellite2000 492 of 493 ICO-1 is not ready for shipping, Final Integrated Systems Test (FIST) hasn't even been performed yet. Possible that it may be ready for shipping in late August if all goes well. ICO-2 will follow 1-2 month later. My source is me (I am directly involved, hence I can't say too much outside of the info any visitor would be able to gather by walking around the factory or could read in the papers). Your source is flat out wrong. Also, a recent Space News article states that HSC has purchased an additional 4 Sea Launches for 2001-2003, one of which is ICO. Obviously, the 12th ICO wouldn't be launched until at least 2001 based on this Space News article. Posted: 07/27/1999 10:07 pm EDT as a reply to: Msg 474 by LawrenceCooper