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US allows Alcatel to sell satellite to Agrani

Anjan Mitra

In a significant move, the US state department has issued a re-export licence to French satellite major Alcatel which will facilitate the sale of a satellite to the Subhash Chandra-promoted Agrani Satellite Services Ltd (ASSL).

The move will also hasten the financial closure of the Rs 12.50-billion Agrani satellite project.

After the Pokharan blast in 1998, as part of the sanctions, the US had imposed a ban on selling of defence-related equipment to Indian companies. This had acted as a roadblock to many ventures promoted by Indians.

The US state department issued a notification to the US Congress expressing its intention of issuing this licence under a mandatory 30-day notice period. A re-export licence was required by Alcatel because some components of the French satellite are made in the US.

"We have been informed about the US government's permission on re-export licence to Alcatel involving a satellite system which will be Indian-owned," a senior government official said.

For the ASC Enterprises-promoted ASSL, the re-export licence was also a pre-requisite for many financial institutions and banks for converting in-principle sanctions to real disbursements.

Agrani, which is seeking to raise about Rs 6.90 billion in debt, is slated to announce financial closure very soon.

The ministry of commerce and industry has already approved a proposed investment by Alcatel Spacecom SA and Arianespace SA in the Agrani Satellite project, the first private Indian initiative to launch a C & Ku-band satellite. This approval clears the decks for a $20-million investment, the first by a foreign company into an Indian satellite venture.

ASSL is the first such venture to be notified by the government as per the newly formed Satcom policy. French satellite major Alcatel will pick up a 9.5 per cent stake for $15 million and Arianespace, the global major launch service provider, is picking up 3.25 per cent stake in ASSL for $5 million.

ASSL will deploy, on a fast track, a high-powered and long-life satellite with 24 C band and 14 Ku band transponders for various communications services.

These transponders will support a broad range of applications like TV broadcasting and direct-to-home TV service, rural and remote area communications, private and public V-Sat networks, Internet backbone bandwidth (domestic as well as international) and direct access and international connectivity.

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