VIA SATELLITE: What is the worst-case scenario in this economic climate?
SEZNEC: So where could the crisis come from? It could come from the difficulty to finance the projects. The weakest segments would be the smaller operators, possibly the constellations. That is why we are vigilant. In terms of the number of satellite orders in 2009, I think there is some kind of consensus between the players to say that this year, it will not decrease that much. Before the crisis became obvious, everyone would have bet on a solid 25-plus satellites. Now maybe it is somewhere between 20 and 25 satellites.
VIA SATELLITE: Do you expect 2009 to be a better year financially than 2008?
SEZNEC: We have had a very good start to the year. We are building on this. We are confident. I am rather cautious about my predictions, but I would expect 2009 would be at least as good a year as 2008.
VIA SATELLITE: In the Middle East we are seeing new operators such as SmartSat and Yahsat emerge. Will we see other new operators emerge during this time?
SEZNEC: The question just does not relate to the Middle East. We see new operators in many other regions. In Asia, you have ABS, which already operates one satellite and they want to purchase another one. ProtoStar is another one. You have ViaSat which has become a satellite owner. There is O3b, which is planning to offer new broadband services to that part of the world which is not being served by other means.
It is something healthy that there is the emergence of new operators in many places of the world. A question is will they find the right level of financing from the market. They will obviously need this to acquire space assets. We can maybe help. We play a role indirectly, because where there are credit export agencies such as Coface in France. This is a strong tool to help new entrants getting funded. This makes the banking system feel more secure, but we are using the existing systems to help facilitate the needs of our customers.
VIA SATELLITE: What is your take on Globalstar and how the operator secured its financing? How much influence did Thales Alenia Space have on this situation?
SEZNEC: Coface, which is the French export credit agency, is not a bank. It brings a guarantee, but beyond that, for financing to be secure, there is a need to have a bank. This is what is being put in the case specifically for Globalstar, but not only Globalstar. It is not a financing by the French government. It is a guarantee by a body, Coface, and then there is a loan brought by a bank on commercial terms.
So how can we help in these situations? We have a knowledge of how it works. We know how to structure files, how to help support it and so on. That is what we do. We can support the customer in terms of putting together his own financial engineering. Globalstar is not the only case. The Yamal satellite for Gazprom is of the same nature. We have the ability to put together a financing scheme to help us win contracts. This is why we are happily supporting customers to this effect.
We cannot do miracles, but we can support our customers. Most of the Globalstar activity we have done is in France. The sale of the Globalstar satellites is considered an export from France. It is Coface’s job to support export deals. The link is just that one. There is no other link.
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