June 19 (Bloomberg) — BC Partners Limited agreed to take control of Intelsat Limited, in a transaction valuing the world's biggest commercial-satellite operator at $5.03 billion.BC, based in London, will own 76 percent of the company, and Intelsat's current owners will keep the rest. The buyout firm will also assume $11.4 billion of Intelsat's debt, Bermuda-based Intelsat said yesterday in a statement.

Intelsat's 51 satellites beam television pictures for broadcasters such as CBS Corp. and Walt Disney Co.'s ABC, which need more capacity to carry high-definition programs. Satellite providers are also seeing increased demand for data services such as videoconferencing.

"The price was well within the expected amount," said Todd Mitchell, an analyst at Kaufman Bros. in New York who follows satellite TV companies. "It fits the profile of what you're looking for in a financial asset: a somewhat predictable, fairly stable growth rate, a high margin and high-quality cash flow."

BC Partners, led by managing partner Simon Palley, is investing a 5.5 billion-euro ($7.4 billion) leveraged buyout fund it raised two years ago. The firm will add Intelsat to investments including UK real estate broker Foxtons and travel-reservations company Amadeus Global Travel Distribution.

Merrill Lynch & Co. advised BC Partners. Credit Suisse Group, which advised the sellers, is leading a group of banks that will arrange loans to help fund the take-over.

Buyout firms use a combination of their own funds and debt to pay for take-overs. They typically seek to expand the companies they acquire or improve their performance before selling them within five years. Intelsat's current owners, a group of four private equity firms including Apax Partners Worldwide LLP and Permira Advisers LLP, will receive $4.6 billion in cash. They paid $515 million for the company four years ago.

London-based Apax and Permira teamed up with US buyout firms Madison Dearborn Partners LLC and Apollo Management LP to buy Intelsat in 2003. A year later, Intelsat bought rival operator PanAmSat Holding for $3.2 billion to create the world's largest satellite operator.

Intelsat reported a loss of $368.7 million in 2006 and revenue of $1.7 billion. For the first quarter of this year, it had a loss of $115.1 million and revenue of $518.2 million, according to a regulatory filing.

Overall, the satellite-services industry is growing at a rate of five percent to eight percent a year, according to Christopher Baugh, president of NSR LLC, a firm that provides research on the satellite industry. Most of the growth in the US is driven by demand to distribute television programming, particularly high- definition programs which take up more capacity.