STOCKHOLDER VOTE SCHEDULED FOR SEPTEMBER 23
NEW YORK and BETHESDA, Md., Aug. 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- GHL Acquisition Corp. ("GHL Acquisition") (NYX: GHQ) and Iridium Holdings LLC ("Iridium") today issued the following statement in regard to the Federal Communications Commission ("FCC") approval of the companies' combination.
"We are pleased that the FCC has approved our transaction," said Scott Bok, CEO of GHL Acquisition. "With all regulatory approvals in hand, GHL Acquisition plans to hold a special meeting of its stockholders to seek approval for the transaction on September 23, 2009. We are enthusiastic about bringing this to a close and are very pleased that Iridium continues to demonstrate why it is a strong investment for our shareholders."
"The FCC's approval moves Iridium one step closer to concluding this transaction and to strengthening our business for the future," added Matt Desch, CEO of Iridium. "This is good news for us, our partners and our customers, and helps advance our plans to build our next-generation satellite constellation, Iridium NEXT."
On September 23, 2008, GHL Acquisition and Iridium announced that GHL Acquisition would combine with Iridium in a transaction that furthers Iridium's plans to build Iridium NEXT and would result in Iridium becoming a publicly traded company. In connection with the transaction, on July 29, 2009, GHL Acquisition announced further progress toward its combination with Iridium with a warrant restructuring whereby GHL Acquisition entered into agreements with certain warrant holders. Under the terms of the agreements, approximately 26.8 million warrants issued by GHL Acquisition, including 4.0 million warrants held by Greenhill & Co., Inc. ("Greenhill"), GHL Acquisition's sponsor, will be repurchased or restructured upon closing of its Iridium acquisition. The warrants subject to those agreements, combined with those subject to previously disclosed agreements relating to warrant repurchases or forfeitures, represent approximately 69% of the 44.1 million GHL Acquisition warrants that would otherwise have been outstanding following the Iridium acquisition. The effect of the agreements with warrant holders is to significantly reduce the number of fully diluted GHL Acquisition shares that will be outstanding following completion of the Iridium acquisition.
Stockholders of record as of August 27, 2009 will be able to attend and vote at the special stockholder meeting. A definitive proxy statement is expected to be mailed to stockholders of GHL Acquisition around August 31, 2009.
About GHL Acquisition Corp.
GHL Acquisition Corp. is a special purpose acquisition company launched in February 2008, in an initial public offering raising $400 million of gross proceeds.
