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

To: Jeff Vayda who wrote (5500)	3/18/1999 12:51:00 PM
From: Valueman	Respond to of 10852

Jeff: L-Star 1 was very close to completion. L-Star 2 was not. Would these need to be reconfigured? Not sure--depend on the application. I am not surer what Echostar has in mind since Echo V&VI go up into the 110 slot this year sometime. Echo III&IV are both faulty LMT birds, with an insurance claim pending on Echo IV. If they get the total loss payment of $219 million, the insurance company owns the bird and can do with it as they please. Covenants require that DISH use those proceeds to launch another bird or buy in debt. Echo IV is at 148W and supplies local and specialty programming. Will they need to replace it? I do not know. If they do, L-Star might be a good buy. Is there a current need? Only if the insurance claim is settled soon. Other companies have gotten quick builds and launches. AsiaSat launches Sunday--that took just over a year. There is a "carcass" of Thaicom 4 that anyone could buy if they wanted from the Europeans. The M2A was so specialized, and such a engineering nightmare, thatI doubt it could be peddled to anyone. I am curious what Loral will do with the Brazil slot. Could Orion 2 end up there? Eutelsat is looking like they want to fight over 12.5W. In addition, what is this 47W slot mentioned in the latest press release? My notes say that is a Ka-band slot. I think the link between Spain and Brazil is very tight, so Loral would like a satellite to link the two closely. The programming on Hispasat is beamed to Brazil as an example. There could be a lot more of that. Is Orion 2 delayed because it is being reconfigured? I don't know. It may just be behind schedule. We'll see. The Brazil deal is right in line with what I have been looking for out of Loral. More slots, more sats, more folks in the Global Alliance. Keep 'em coming I say. The acquisitions look to be on hold until G* financing is a bit clearer, but they will follow. It is obvious that the entire industry is still too fragmented to take full advantage of the assets available. That costs us money. It also gives the company with the foresight to line up some good deals. I couldn't agree more, as you are already aware. There are too many "mom and pop" sat constellations. As the Borg say, "they will be assimilated." Loral is more than likely working on any number of them--Hispasat, Nahuelsat, APT, Shinewatra, Agila, Optus, etc. A handful of global operators would be so much more efficient and customer friendly.