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ATH acquisition of Bluesky in Am. Samoa progressing well, says BS Pacific Group

Bluesky Pacific Group chief executive officer Toleafoa Tiafau Douglas Creevey
fili@samoanews.com

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Amalgamated Telecom Holdings Limited’s (ATH) acquisition of Bluesky Communication assets in American Samoa is progressing well with federal regulators, after several months of no activities, says Bluesky Pacific Group chief executive officer Toleafoa Tiafau Douglas Creevey.

He also noted that federal regulatory process for the acquisition involves not only the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) but, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) — an independent entity made up of several federal government agencies.

During a brief media interview last Friday at the Bluesky facility in Ili’ili, Toleafoa was asked about the latest update on the Bluesky sale to ATH, and he responded that it’s “progressing very well. I can say that it went for about 18 months with nothing happening.”

But “for the last two months, we’ve actually seen a lot of progress” with a lot of interaction between the company’s lawyers in Washington D.C. and federal agencies, seeking more information on transaction requirements, he explained.

He said the United States security offices “have given the tick-off to the acquisition” after conducting their assessment. (He didn’t identify the US security offices, but Samoa News understands that the offices include the US Department of Homeland Security and US State Department.)

He explained that the second part — referring to federal regulatory review — is the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). “They have been reviewing the whole transaction over the past 30-days, so they’ve got another 30-days,” he said. “And all expectations are that their approval will be given [and] that will take us to the end of July.”

“The FCC then does their overall summary of transaction. Based on the fact that we had two out of three approvals progressing and looking very favorable, it would mean that at this stage — no major issues would arise,” he said.

“So its been a long time coming, but it took a long time [that] nothing was happening but things are happening very quickly now,” he said, noting that “from the business prospective, it’s business as usual” and he commended the local Bluesky staff for their continued dedicated work.

It was early last year that the FCC sought public comments on the “applications filed for the transfer of control” of AST Telecom LLC dba Bluesky, American Samoa Hawaii Cable LLC (ASH-Cable), and Samoa American Samoa Cable LLC (SAS-Cable), from Spain-based Amper S.A. to Fiji-based ATH and requested a declaratory rule on foreign ownership. FCC online records show no public comments were received during the comment period.

BACKGROUND

According to the US Treasury website, there are several federal agencies — including the US State Department and US Department of Homeland Security — that make up members of the CFIUS, which is chaired by the US Secretary of Treasury.

Additionally, the CFIUS, established by federal law, is authorized to review transactions that could result in control of a U.S. business by a foreign person — “covered transactions” — in order to determine the effect of such transactions on the national security of the United States.

And of yesterday morning, according to FCC online public records, the ATH application is still pending FCC final approval and this includes a request to transfer ownership of ASH-Cable and SAS-Cable from Amper S.A. to ATH. (See Samoa News edition May 24 regarding update of the request transfer of ASH-Cable, which is 33% minority owned by ASG.)