Intelsat bankruptcy hearings delayed

Eleventh-hour decisions to delay the formal hearing of Intelsat’s bankruptcy exit Confirmation Plan by a few days has been approved by its bankruptcy court. The Zoom-based hearings will now not commence until December 6th. The court has provisionally allocated 10 days for the hearings.

The hearings themselves promise to be compelling with the court recently having been bombarded with lists of evidence to be presented and argued, and some of the filed motions – in particular from the so-called ‘Ad Hoc Group of Convertible Noteholders’ – are objecting to various aspects of the exit-from-bankruptcy plan and how Intelsat’s assets are distributed. However, Intelsat’s lawyers claim that this group “are the most junior stakeholders in the entire capital structure,” and argue that the Group’s requests can be set-aside.

Many of the documents are also claimed to contain confidential or even “highly confidential” and the court will be asked as one of the first decisions to be made that such documents be filed under seal.

The Intelsat Chapter 11 exit plan was filed into the court on September 7th and central to the assorted litigation claims concern how the court will allocate the $4.87 billion coming from the FCC’s Accelerated Relocation Payments for the C-band clearances. Intelsat SA wants the cash to go to Intelsat License LLC (a sister business but separate legal entity).

Intelsat’s lawyers state: “Thus, in deciding whether to confirm the proposed plan, the Court will be presented with the core issue in dispute: which Debtor estate is entitled to the value of the Accelerated Relocation Payments.” Advanced Television