MOSCOW, March 22. /TASS/. The shareholders of Russia’s Energia Rocket and Space Corporation have approved a deal to sell the assets of the Sea Launch (floating spaceport) project to S7 Group.
The deal was approved by 148,098 shareholders, with 30,456 votes against it and 1,200 abstentions. As a result, the decision was passed, the Energia Corporation said in a statement.
In late September 2016, S7 signed a contract with Sea Launch Group (owned by the Energia Corporation) on the project’s acquisition. The purchase items comprised the Odyssey floating platform, the Sea Launch Commander ship, the ground-based equipment at Long Beach port (California), and also the Sea Launch trademark.
"The purchase price of the Sea Launch compound’s assets is 6.28 billion rubles [$109 million]," the document says.
"The deal aims to avoid the debtor’s bankruptcy [the bankruptcy of Sea Launch SA] and carry through the deal for the purchase/sale of the Sea Launch’s assets held by the debtor in a condition fit for operation according to their direct designation to the entity capable of continuing such operation, and also to partially grant the creditors’ claims," the statement reads.
Overall, the deal is worth no more than 15 billion rubles ($260 million), which defines the size of Sea Launch SA’s liabilities to creditors that are repaid as the deal goes through.
In the first place, Sea Launch SA as the debtor will use the deal’s proceeds to repay debts to external creditors unaffiliated with the Energia Rocket and Space Corporation. In the second turn, sums will be retained to pay the liquidation expenses of the debtor and Energia Logistics Ltd. (no more than $1.3 million for Energia Logistics Ltd. and no more than $1 million for Sea Launch SA). The remaining funds will be distributed among the creditors proportionate to the size of the debtor’s liabilities to partially discharge its obligations to the creditors, the statement says.
Sea Launch
The Sea Launch is an international commercial project of the seaborne rocket and space complex. Sea Launch Company was established in 1995 for the project’s implementation. Its founders included US Boeing, Russia’s Energiya Corporation, the Norwegian shipyard Kvaerner (currently Aker Solutions), Ukraine’s Yuzhnoye design bureau and the Ukrainian Yuzhmash rocket and space enterprise. Sea Launch Company declared its bankruptcy in the summer of 2009 and after its reorganization in 2010 Russia’s Energiya Corporation gained the leading role in the project. Space launches were suspended in 2014.
Launches from the floating seaport are scheduled to restart in 2019. A total of 10-12 launches are planned under the project during the first five years.
It was reported earlier that investments in the project to resume the Sea Launch program totaled $220 million.