First, the good news: AST SpaceMobile has opened an $800 million ‘At The Market’ offering of new shares to a cluster of banks. The money is now available as needed by AST and if fully drawn down is equal to about 3 per cent of the shares issued. It means that AST is sitting on about $2.3 billion of liquidity (although it must pay more than a half-billion dollars to Viasat by the end of this month). It also means that AST is able to fund its activity through 2026.

One of the banks involved in the AST cash exercise is Scotia Capital (USA). Perhaps bizarrely, its subsidiary Scotiabank has reversed its previous and frequent ‘Buy/Sector Perform’ recommendations on AST shares. It now says ‘Sell’ and that “the moment of truth is coming” and is worried that AST still has to start launching its BlueBird 6 and 7 satellites and that it could be several months before AT&T and Verizon launch their ‘beta’ versions of AST’s satellite-to-consumer services.

Scotiabank is now guiding a price target for AST at just $42.90 AST was trading at ($74.75 on October 7th). Worse, perhaps, is that the bank warns clients that there could be a “painful correction at a time of significant competitive and operating risks”.

Scotiabank also complains about the delays in launching AST’s next-gen fleet of BlueBirds. The bank says this opens the door for competitors and customers overseas getting impatient and “ditching” AST for Starlink.

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Categories: Blogs, Business, Inside Satellite, Satellite

Tags: AST SpaceMobile, bank