Ottawa-based Telesat has applied to list on the Toronto Stock Exchange as it looks to raise funds for a multibillion-dollar project to beam high-speed internet to remote areas from a constellation of low-Earth-orbit satellites.
The satellite operator is also planning to list on the NASDAQ, and its shares are expected to start trading on the two exchanges as early as Nov. 19, under the ticker symbol TSAT. The TSX has not yet approved the listing application, which was filed Nov. 9.
No new shares will be issued as part of the transaction. However, the listings will allow Telesat to raise money through equity markets in the future.
Telesat is owned by the Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments), a Crown corporation, and Loral Space & Communications Inc., a holding company that trades on the NASDAQ.
The transaction will see Telesat and Loral, which owns 62.7 per cent of the satellite operator, become subsidiaries of Telesat Corp., a new, publicly traded company. Telesat’s current shareholders will own all the equity in the new company in roughly the same proportions they do now.
Earlier this year, Telesat secured $1.44-billion in financing from the federal government to help build its Lightspeed constellation. The project, which is estimated to cost US$5-billion, will be composed of 298 satellites orbiting about 1,000 kilometres above the Earth, providing faster internet service than the company’s existing fleet of geostationary satellites.
Telesat has chosen French-Italian aerospace manufacturer Thales Alenia Space to build the constellation and Canadarm maker MDA Ltd. to produce antennas for the satellites.
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