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Teresat Telsat CEO Dan Goldberg said in a conference call with investors Tuesday that the company is in discussions about funding Lightspeed Constellation during the third quarter, and that the company will continue to invest in Constellation. He said he was still “bullish” about the opportunity for
The Lightspeed Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) constellation hit some speed bumps after the Telesat. constellation shrink plan Earlier this year, it was previously reported Delay in loan negotiations With Export Credit Agencies (ECAs). Telesat previously planned to renew its funding in the second quarter, but it is now due by the end of the year.
After Telesat released its third-quarter results, Goldberg provided an update on Lightspeed’s funding discussions on Tuesday’s conference call with investors, reporting a 6% decline in revenue during the quarter.
Goldberg said Telesat is working to finalize funding discussions with the ECA and is proceeding with discussions on additional funding needed due to higher costs and longer timelines due to inflation. . If this funding is secured, it will be at Lightspeed’s subsidiary level and subject to ECA lenders and Canadian government and Quebec investments.
“Since our last call, we are pleased to have made visible progress in relation to securing this funding. We are very bullish about Telesat Lightspeed’s opportunity to grow our business,” said Goldberg.
But he added that there was “no guarantee” that these discussions would “end up successfully.”
But Goldberg is bullish on the constellation, and has said nothing in a competitive environment about how OneWeb and Amazon’s recent advances will change his view of Lightspeed’s potential.
“We have a great constellation, a huge amount of support from our shareholders, a huge amount of support from our government partners here in Canada, and a significant amount of backlog already. [we] We have very good discussions with our customer community. Our focus is to complete the funding, launch the program and go to market with Lightspeed,” he said.
Anik F2 anomaly
Last quarter, Teresat shared that there was an anomaly with the Anik F2 satellite. The satellite has two thruster anomalies and will not be able to maintain stationkeeping until the end of this year, at which point it will be put into an inclined orbit.
Anik F2 accounts for about 8% of Telesat’s total revenue, and if the company fails to continue to serve its customers, Anik F2’s revenue could decline by a third in 2023.
Goldberg said Telsat is working closely with its customers and has various plans to continue its services. “These plans include making changes to the antennas that communicate with the satellites to expand their service, relying on other Telesat or third-party satellites, or requiring existing ‘s orbital C-band satellites, which will be co-located with Anik F2 in the coming months,” he said.
If all goes according to plan, Telesat will retain more than 90% of Anik F2’s projected revenue starting next year, albeit with additional operational expenditures.
Financial results
Telesat revenue declined 6% in Q3 2022 compared to the same period last year. Consolidated sales were C$180 million ($134 million). The revenue decline was primarily due to Dish’s partial capacity renewal and revenue from short-term services provided to another satellite operator in 2021 that did not recur in 2022.
The decline was partially offset by higher revenue from mobile customers and a NASA Communications Services Project (CSP) program awarded earlier this year, Telesat said.
Goldberg said demand for aviation and shipping recovered as expected after the pandemic, but was even stronger than expected. He said Telesat is having trouble capitalizing on all opportunities to serve mobility customers. [Mediterranean], Caribbean in the cruise market, some of the major flight routes in the aviation segment. ”
Third quarter operating expenses were C$56 million ($42 million), down 7% from the same period in 2021.
Telesat’s third quarter net loss was C$229 million, compared with a third quarter 2021 net loss of C$52 million. The difference was primarily due to higher non-cash foreign exchange losses resulting from the conversion of Telesat’s US dollar debt to US dollar denominated debt.Canadian Dollar
Telesat continues to expect full-year 2022 revenue to be between C$740 million and C$750 million, depending on the current exchange rate between the US dollar and the Canadian dollar. Goldberg said he does not expect any impact from this year’s Anik F2 anomaly.
Telesat’s current business contract backlog, not including Lightspeed, is C$1.9 billion and 87% fleet utilization.
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