Telesat Will be Publicly Traded by End of Year, CEO Forecasts in Q3 Report

Telesat headquarters in Ottawa, Canada.
Photo Credit: Telesat

Telesat reported a modest revenue decline of 5% in the third quarter of 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, and CEO Dan Goldberg said Telesat expects to complete its deal to become publicly traded by the end of the year. 

Third quarter revenue was $192 million Canadian dollars ($154 million), down 5% compared to the same period in 2020. Telesat said adjusted for changes in foreign exchange rates, the revenue decline was just 2% compared to 2020.

Telesat attributed the decrease to a slight reduction of service for one of its North American Direct-to-Home (DTH) customers, the reduction or non-renewal of certain services in the enterprise segment and lower consulting revenue. Telesat attributed some of the enterprise reduction and non-renewal to the COVID-19 pandemic. These decreases were partially offset by an increase in revenue associated with short-term services provided to another satellite operator. 

Net loss in Q3 was $42 million Canadian dollars ($34 million), compared to net income of $107 million Canadian dollars ($86 million) in 2020. The change was principally the result of a non-cash foreign exchange loss in 2021 from the translation of Telesat’s U.S. dollar denominated debt into Canadian dollars. 

Backlog as of Sept. 30 was $2.3 billion Canadian dollars ($1.9 billion) and fleet utilization was at 80%. 

“I am pleased with our results for the third quarter and first nine months of the year, particularly given the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic continued to restrain certain business activities,” commented Dan Goldberg, Telesat’s President and CEO. “Although revenues and Adjusted EBITDA, adjusted for foreign exchange rate changes, were modestly lower, we continued to generate strong cash flows and maintain an industry-leading Adjusted EBITDA margin, high capacity utilization and a substantial contractual backlog.”

Goldberg said Telesat is near the conclusion of its merger with major shareholder Loral Space & Communications to form one public company. This merger, confirmed in Nov. 2020, will help Telesat finance its Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) constellation Lightspeed. Telesat is investing $5 billion into the project, it’s largest ever capital expenditure. The company has received various investments from government entities in Canada, including a $1.44 billion Canadian dollars investment agreement with the government in August.