[Satellite TODAY 03-04-11] Canadian operator Telesat saw its full-year consolidated revenues increase 4 percent from 2009 to $821 million in 2010 but reported income of $228 million in 2010, compared with $431 million in 2009, the company announced in its latest financial results issued March 3.
    Telesat’s fiscal results often are hampered by foreign exchange rates between the Canadian dollar and U.S. dollar. However, the operator said it cut foreign exchange losses from $117 million in 2009 to just $11 million in 2010. In a statement, CEO Dan Goldberg said about $56 million of the $106 million improvement was the result of an increase in the fair value of the prepayment options on Telesat’s long-term debt and the balance of the improvement was the result of a stronger Canadian dollar compared with the U.S. dollar.
   “Adjusting for foreign exchange movements, we experienced strong growth in revenue, a substantial reduction in expenses, significant growth in adjusted earnings and continued expansion of our adjusted (earnings) margin,” said Goldberg. “Our revenue increase was due to more business on Nimiq 5 and Telstar 11N and were partially offset by Telesat’s decision to terminate its lease in the Telstar 10 satellite in July 2009.”
   On a conference call, Goldberg would not comment on a November report in Bloomberg that cited unnamed sources claiming Telesat hired JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse Group to discuss financial arrangements for an initial public offering or a possible sell-off. Telesat is partially owned by Loral Space and Communications.
   Separately, Telesat announced today that it has acquired the Canadian payload of the ViaSat-1 satellite from Loral and will assume the 15-year contract Barrett Xplore signed with Loral in June to use the entire payload to provide broadband services in rural Canada. The agreement will see Telesat receive lease payments of about $250 million from Barrett over the life of the satellite.
   “The capabilities of ViaSat-1 are ideally suited to meet the strong demand for broadband services to rural Canada. Barrett Xplore has been a pioneer and leader in bringing affordable, reliable and high quality broadband services to rural Canadians, and Telesat is pleased to support them with our investment in ViaSat-1, enabling these communities to realize even greater benefits from advanced broadband services,” Goldberg said.