The main news on Paris-based Eutelsat recently has been focused on cash-raising and its financial restructuring. Eutelsat is not alone in seeing in long-standing DTH satellite transmissions being under pressure and even though these broadcasts will almost certainly continue for a few decades yet, there’s no doubt that viewers are increasingly switching away from DTH to streaming services.

However, Eutelsat is not just buoyant but highly optimistic about its mid-term future thanks to its investment in its OneWeb fleet and growing revenues flowing from the fleet. But Japan’s SoftBank is cutting its stake in Eutelsat and this has badly damaged the operator’s share price.

A presentation made by Eutelsat’s senior staffers to investors showed that it expects Eutelsat’s ‘Government’ vertical will see revenue growth of some 29 per cent in the fiscal year 2028-2029 and this is more than sufficient to offset any revenue loss from DTH. The growth should equate to around €1.6 billion for the year. Current annual revenues in the division are about €1.24 billion.

This revenue increase would mean an EBITDA margin of about 60 per cent (up from the current 54.4 per cent), and a commensurate reduction in Eutelsat fiscal leverage from an unhealthy – but necessary – 3.5x to nearer 2.5x.

“These capital increases, combined with a refinancing plan including a bond financing, export-credit financings and an extension of bank debt maturities, should enable to company to finance its medium-term plan and cover 2026-2029 investments of approximately €4 billion while reducing leverage to 2.5x at end of 2025-26 financial year,” Eutelsat told shareholders. The company added that it was in advanced negotiations with various export-credit agencies.

Eutelsat already has an order for 100 new OneWeb satellites, needed to start replacing the earlier craft launched into orbit and which are now nearing their ‘end of life’ operations.

Eutelsat is also a key participant in the SpaceRISE consortium which is looking to manage the demands of the European Commission’s IRIS2 mega-constellation. It is likely that more news on the precise planning and structure of the new constellation will be settled by the end of 2025.

“We have a unique position because we are the European leader in low-orbit connectivity in a changing geopolitical environment, which is favourable to us because we are the only ones who are not American,” Eutelsat CEO Jean-François Fallacher told shareholders, seemingly forgetting Luxembourg’s SES which has a couple of LEO and MEO options in its portfolio.

Meanwhile, one major investor in Eutelsat, Bharti Space, on November 28th, confirmed its had reduced its stake in Eutelsat to below 20 per cent (and to 17.88 per cent of Eutelsat’s overall share capital. This change follows a capital increase by Eutelsat, effective November 21st. Bharti Space, a subsidiary of Bharti Global Limited, submitted its declaration in accordance with French regulations.

However, some minority shareholders are still unhappy. News emerged on December 3rd that Japanese investment house SoftBank had cut its stake in Eutelsat by about half. SoftBank, according to Reuters, has sold 36 million rights, corresponding to around 26 million shares and around half its stake in the satellite operator.

Eutelsat’s share price has thus fallen 9.39 per cent over the past five days (and 6.76 per cent on December 3rd) to €1.94.

Other posts by :

1. Moody’s upgrades Eutelsat’s debt rating
2. Rivada Space Networks wins spectrum dispute
3. Will we take an AI bubble bath?
4. Eutelsat shareholders upset over Rights Issue
5. Amazon Leo satellites en route to French Guiana
6. Deutsche Bank reveals targets for AST SpaceMobile
7. AST SpaceMobile boss outlines benefits
8. Report: LEO build-out accelerates
9. Germany outlines space commitment

Categories: Blogs, Business, Inside Satellite, Satellite

Tags: eutelsat, LEO, meo, SES, SoftBank