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Photo Credit: Telesat
Telesat’s first quarter results as it moves forward with plans for its Lightspeed constellation.
On Friday, Telesat reported $190 million Canadian dollars ($157 million) in Q1 revenue, down 9% compared to the same quarter in 2020. The Canadian operator cited the pandemic’s impact on customers serving commercial airline and cruise industries, along with changes to foreign exchange rate for the decrease.
Net income, however, was up 115% over the same time last year. Q1 net income of CA$42 million ($34.7 million) was a boost from a net loss of CA$278 million ($229 million) in Q1 2020 because of non-cash gains on foreign exchange arising because Telesat translated its U.S. dollar denominated debt into Canadian dollars in the first quarter of 2021.
Photo Credit: Telesat
Telesat reported its 2020 financial results on Thursday, with a 10% decline in revenue compared to the prior year, and forecasted a $356 billion total addressable market (TAM) for its business in the future with the Lightspeed constellation.
For the year, Telesat reported consolidated revenue of $820 million Canadian dollars ($648 million). The company cited a variety of factors that contributed to the revenue decrease, but CEO Dan Goldberg said on Thursday’s investor call that roughly 60% of the decline was due to the non-renewal of North American Direct-to-Home (DTH) customer
Shaw Direct and the completion the amortization of
WildBlue prepayment. Other factors include lower revenue on short-term services provided to other satellite operators and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Telesat customers serving aeronautical and maritime markets.