Loral Space & Communications announced that Intelsat, Ltd., was the highest bidder in an auction held today for Loral's North American telecommunications satellites. The winning bid was $1.1 billion. The other bidder at the auction was EchoStar Communications Corporation. Intelsat's bid is subject to approval by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. The court will consider Loral's motion to approve the sale to Intelsat at a hearing scheduled for Wednesday, October 22.

On July 15, 2003, Loral announced that it had reached a definitive agreement to sell its North American telecommunications satellites to Intelsat. The agreement provided for the sale of the in-orbit Telstars 4, 5, 6, 7 and 13, as well as Telstar 8, which is scheduled to be launched in the first half of next year. Subsequent to that announcement, Telstar 4 failed and was deemed a total loss; it is fully insured.

Loral intends to reorganize around its remaining fleet of five satellites and its satellite manufacturing operations, allowing the company to go forward as a viable enterprise with opportunities for future growth.

Loral Space & Communications is a satellite communications company. It owns and operates a global fleet of telecommunications satellites used by television and cable networks to broadcast video entertainment programming, and by communication service providers, resellers, corporate and government customers for broadband data transmission, Internet services and other value-added communications services. Loral also is a world-class leader in the design and manufacture of satellites and satellite systems for commercial and government applications including direct-to-home television, broadband communications, wireless telephony, weather monitoring and air traffic management.