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Technology Stocks : Loral Space & Communications -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sawtooth who wrote (5330)	2/13/1999 10:05:00 AM
From: Valueman	Respond to of 10852

Saturday February 13, 4:03 am Eastern Time Malaysian firm issues tender for third satellite By Madhav Reddy KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Malaysian firm Binariang Satellite Systems Sdn Bhd is in the market for a third communications satellite, company officials said on Saturday. The private firm had called for bids to build the country's third satellite and the international tender would close on March 31, they said. ''There is a tender but we are not at liberty to disclose the details,'' said one official who asked not to be identified. Binariang senior manager of commercial operations Abdul Halim Abdul Hamid declined to comment on the tender, but said: ''Contact me after two months.'' Richard Bowles, representative for Southeast Asia for European rocket builder Arianespace, was quoted by newspapers on Saturday saying that his firm was planning to bid to launch Malaysia's third satellite. He was quoted as telling reporters in Kuala Lumpur that Arianespace was monitoring the tender. ''We have to wait and see what the actual volume and weight of the satellite will be before we can offer our services,'' he said. If Arianespace got the contract, the satellite could be launched some time in 2001, the New Straits Times reported Bowles as saying. Arianespace launched the first two satellites, Measat-1 (Malaysia East Asia Satellite) and Measat-2 in 1995. In October last year, Abdul Halim of Binariang was quoted as saying that his firm was negotiating with Hughes Space and Communications, which built the first two satellites, Loral Space, Lockheed Martin and Aerospatiale to build the third satellite. Measat-1 and Measat-2 each cost over 700 million ringgit ($184.2 million). Abdul Halim was reported to have said that Measat-3 could cost more, but less than $300 million. One Binariang official said the estimate was correct since the Malaysian ringgit had undergone a sharp devaluation against the U.S. dollar since a regional currency crisis erupted in mid-1997. It has gone down 35 percent against the U.S. unit since then. The third satellite was originally scheduled for launch in 1998, but the economic crisis has delayed it, the official said.