NEW YORK (Reuters) - Loral Space & Communications Inc (>> Loral Space & Communications Ltd.), which holds a majority stake in Canadian satellite communication services company Telesat Holdings Inc, is exploring a sale, according to several people familiar with the matter.

Loral, whose biggest shareholder is hedge fund veteran Mark Rachesky's MHR Fund Management LLC, is working with Credit Suisse Group AG (>> Credit Suisse Group AG) as it prepares to market itself to potential buyers, the people said.

At the same time, Loral is talking to another Telesat shareholder, Canada's Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP), about the possibility of jointly selling Telesat, one of the people said. There is no agreement currently between Loral and PSP about a joint sale of Telesat, the people said.

A buyer seeking control of Telesat would need PSP's agreement. The Canadian pension fund manager is being advised by Morgan Stanley (>> Morgan Stanley) on options for its stake in Telesat, the person added.

Loral, which has a market value of around $2.4 billion, draws the bulk of its value from its holding in Telesat, the world's fourth largest provider of fixed satellite services.

All the sources asked not to be identified because the deliberations are confidential. Loral, Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley declined to comment while representatives of PSP, Telesat and MHR did not respond to requests for comment.

(Reporting by Soyoung Kim, Greg Roumeliotis and Nicola Leske in New York; Editing by Alden Bentley)