Loral Chairman Files To Sell Shares (LORL)

Loral Space & Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: LORL) has just filed to sell close to $300 million worth of voting and non-voting shares of common stock in an SEC filing.  The break-down is voting common stock of 954,613 shares and non-voting common stock 9,505,673 shares.  The registration is on behalf of selling shareholders, so none of the proceeds will end up in Loral’s coffers.  The selling stockholders will pay any underwriting fees, discounts or commissions and applicable transfer taxes incurred for the sale of these shares.  In this case, the selling holder(s) are related entities of Loral’s non-executive chairman.

The method of selling is rather open, with the company noting that the share sales may occur via open sales from time to time in public or private transactions, on or off the NASDAQ Global Select Market, in the over-the-counter market or otherwise, at prevailing market prices, or at privately negotiated prices.

The selling holders are affiliated with MHR Capital, which is tied to Dr. Mark H. Rachesky.  He became a member of Loral’s board of directors in 2005, and he serves as non-executive chairman of Loral’s Board of Directors.

Dr. Mark H. Rachesky, in his individual capacity, is also a selling stockholder under this registration statement of 15,000 shares of common stock and another 5,000 shares of common stock potentially issuable.

As far as how this compares, Loral’s stock is down 1.9% at $31.40 today, but the 52-week trading range is $6.02 to $34.83.  The public market capitalization is also listed as $936 million.

Jon C. Ogg
June 2, 2009