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Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.

LORAL BOOSTS STAKE IN GLOBALSTAR; GEORGE SOROS PURCHASES SHARES MOBILE SATELLITE NEWS Vol. 10, No. 14 July 9, 1998

New York-based Loral Space & Communications [LOR] has concluded a previously announced deal to boost its stake in Globalstar L.P. [GSTRF] by 16.8 million shares to 42 percent, up from 38 percent.

In a separate but related deal, billionaire financier George Soros shelled out more than $245 million to buy 8.4 million shares of Globalstar stock from Loral for $29.17 per share. The investment represents a 4 percent stake in the proposed global mobile satellite venture.

Loral purchased its shares from founding service partners DACOM, Daimler-Benz Aerospace, Elsacom, Hyundai, TESAM and Vodafone. Those service providers deposited $210 million, or half the sale proceeds, into an escrow account to fund the purchase of Globalstar gateways and user terminals.

Billionaire financier George Soros shelled out more than $245 million to buy 8.4 million shares of Globalstar stock from Loral for $29.17 per share.

The shares purchased by the Soros fund are restricted and may not be sold without registration. However, Globalstar agreed to provide a shelf-registration for the Soros shares by July 6, 1999. All sides involved in these transactions benefit, said Bernard Schwartz, chairman and CEO of both Globalstar and Loral.

"Our founding service provider partners maintain a significant interest in Globalstar while taking advantage of an opportunity to realize earlier-than-expected gains on a portion of their initial investments in this venture," Schwartz said. "Second, Loral has been able to increase its equity ownership to 42 percent. In addition, Globalstar benefits strategically by the addition of the Soros funds as a strong new shareholder with an international scope." (Jeanette Clonan, Globalstar, 212/338-5658.)

Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.

A window for Saudi oil firms to come home By Alsir Sidahmed SOURCE: ARAB NEWS Middle East Newsfile May 2, 2000

Initial talks were recently concluded between the ministerial committee under Prince Saud Al-Faisal, the foreign minister, and twelve foreign companies. The international oil industry will be carefully watching what comes out of these talks, their end results and how the results will be put into practice. After all, the Kingdom has 25 percent of the world's proven oil reserves and it ranks fifth in natural gas resources. It is the last of the OPEC countries to open its doors to foreign investment, some two decades after the euphoria of the 1970s, when producing countries began to exercise control of their hydrocarbon wealth.

Nimr Petroleum, founded in 1991 by the Mahfouz family. It has made production sharing agreements in Yemen, Romania, Malta; it also has dealings in Libya and the former Soviet republics.

However, unlike many OPEC countries the Kingdom managed to maintain a healthy and competitive industry. The main restructuring plan implemented in the mid-1980s, completed the final phase of transforming the industry by creating Saudi Aramco with its ability to work with a commercial mentality and keep a competitive edge.

With production in excess of some 2 million bpd at the time and an ambitious exploration program covering the entire Kingdom, Saudi Aramco proved that it has the technical and financial resources needed for the world's top producer.

Yet despite that, the Kingdom decided to open up for foreign investment as part of its liberalization program aiming at attracting foreign investments and encouraging the private sector to take an additional role in economic development.

With that in mind, it seems quite natural to have a special campaign to attract private Saudi oil firms working abroad. Over the past decade, three Saudi groups have emerged in oil business.

The one most noticeably successful is Corral Petroleum, owned by Muhammad Hussein Al-Amoudi. It became known after it acquired the Swedish oil firm OK Petroleum, in 1993 and divided it into two companies, one dealing with distribution and retailing and the other with exploration and development. Corral and its subsidiaries are now active in such countries as Morocco, the United Kingdom, Angola, Lebanon and Lithuania in addition to Sweden.

The second is Nimr Petroleum, founded in 1991 by the Mahfouz family. It has made production sharing agreements in Yemen, Romania, Malta; it also has dealings in Libya and the former Soviet republics. The third and the oldest of the private Saudi oil firms is Delta which is backed by some fifty businessmen and is involved in an ambitious upstream project in partnership with the American company, Unocal, to build a pipeline from Turkmenistan across Afghanistan to Pakistan. The project seems to have got under way recently, though without the participation of Unocal.

Now with the opening up of the Kingdom's hydrocarbon sector to foreign investors it seems logical to attract from abroad those private Saudi businesses that are active there. It is a new window and an investment opportunity to attract some of the huge amounts of private Saudi money that is outside the Kingdom. Even more important is the added value of helping to mature and strengthen the Saudi hydrocarbon industry by adding vital private elements to it.