[FPSPACE] Some answers on MirCorp

[Dwayne Allen Day]

This is from:

http://www.msnbc.com/news/477213.asp

(The article originally appeared in the Washington Post on Tuesday, but I
missed it.)

Mir's prime backer aims for stratosphere
Under-the-radar millionaire planning a far-out space station stock offer
By Jerry Knight

THE WASHINGTON POST, WASHINGTON, Oct. 16  Washingtons most under-the-radar
mega-millionaire, Walt Anderson, is preparing Washingtons most far-out
initial public offering  an IPO for the company that runs Russias Mir
space station.

[massive clippage of background on Anderson]


TELECOM TURNAROUND
   Telecom stocks have tanked in the last year, so the value of Andersons
publicly known investments is no longer stratospheric. Bethesda-based
Startec, for example was a $30 stock a few months ago; now its $5.
   Thats one of the reasons for the planned IPO of MirCorp, Anderson said
in a telephone interview Friday night.
   The market wasnt at all kind to us, he said. Were pretty much meeting
our limits on the amount that can be invested in MirCorp. 
More Space News
   By we Anderson means Gold & Appel, an offshore investment fund that
holds stock in all these companies. Anderson rebuts reports that Gold &
Appel is his personal holding company. Ive run the fund for eight years,
he said. Im the only fund manager the fund has had, but Im not the fund.

[more massive snippage on Anderson's business woes]

Anderson has put more than $30 million into the space station company
called MirCorp, which is a partnership with RSC Energia, a privatized
Russian agency that owns Mir. His partner, the scion of an Indian trading
family, kicked in a few million more.
   Since the Russians are down to their last ruble, the two investors
ponied up for a 73-day space mission this summer to keep Mir from falling
out of orbit.

[more snippage]

NASA is not only jawboning the Russians to drop Mir, but is also
discouraging U.S. contractors from working for MirCorp, Anderson said. "We
seem to have a boycott against us by NASA."

[more snippage]

"Its highly speculative, but its probably our only chance to save Mir," he
said. "If we dont raise $80 million of the $117 [million] we need, well
put the Mir in the ocean."

[remainder snipped]


*******************************

This answers some of the questions I've raised before.  First, we now know
how much Anderson has put into MirCorp--$30 million.  It has been rumored
that Kathuria spent $20 million, although it is possible that he only
spent $10 million, since the original amount for the two of them was
rumored to be between $40 and $50 million.

Second, and more importantly, it explains why MirCorp head Jeff Manber
said several weeks ago that Anderson and Kathuria were going to invest
more in MirCorp and then they failed to do so.  They did not put more
money in MirCorp because their telecom stocks were doing poorly and they
have reached their pain threshold.

(This re-raises my question over the weekend--MirCorp has said that they
will pay Energia $10 million for the Progress launch in
November--i.e. "the check is in the mail."  But where are they going to
get that $10 million from?)

The article also quotes Anderson saying that the Russians will make their
final decision on Mir in November, which means that MirCorp somehow has to
get them their money by then--another promise of money in 3-4 months will
not convince the Russians.  So the IPO may be too late.

The third interesting thing in this article is the totally expected claim
by Anderson that they have not been able to sign customers because of
NASA.  This is a typical space-advocate conspiracy theory--that the only
reason we do not have orbiting Hilton hotels is because of NASA and its
evil minions.  I predict that when MirCorp finally folds, the company will
publicly blame NASA for their failure ("It's not OUR fault!").  This will
make it rather hard for them to try and strike up any deals concerning
ISS, since they will have really alienated the space agency (you cannot
throw a brick through NASA's front window and then ask them to come out
and play with you).



DDAY