Posted: Fri, Oct 3, 2003, 1:35 PM ET (1735 GMT)
Members of Congress are asking the US Treasury Department to delay a proposed sale of satellite operator Inmarsat to a pair of UK private equity firms because of national security concerns. Several leading Democratic members of the House and Senate have asked Treasury Secretary John Snow in a pair of letters to review the proposed sale of Inmarsat to Apax Partners and Permira. The legislators asked Snow, chairman of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), to study the sale because of the reliance the US Navy puts on Inmarsat for communications. CFIUS would likely review any sale of Inmarsat to a non-US entity, according to Dow Jones Newswires. Inmarsat is currently in exclusive negotiations with Apax Partners and Permira, which offered about $1.42 billion for Inmarsat, even though US buyout firms Soros Private Equity and Apollo Management LP offered slightly more, $1.5 billion. Inmarsat has been trying to perform a public offering of stock since it was privatized in 1999, but the poor condition of the markets led it to seek a buyer instead.

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•  Reuters article
•  Dow Jones Newswires article