Speaking at a Deutsche Bank equity conference on September 27th, Intelsat’s CFO Jacques Kerrest, told analysts that the recent threat from some bondholders that were alleging that Intelsat had breached loan covenants were now behind it.  Intelsat on the same day restructured $141.8 million of bonds of 2022 due Notes with 99.74 per cent of bondholders accepting Intelsat’s new terms.

Kerrest told delegates that Intelsat’s intention was to carry on deleveraging the company, and to use its $900 million or so cash at hand on deleveraging its borrowings.

Intelsat is in the middle of launching its all-new ‘Epic’ series of giant satellites, and conference delegates were told that the operators current 50+ fleet of satellites would shrink over time to nearer 30 satellites.

However, Kerrest told the meeting that bad debt was not helped by some markets, and their own local problems especially in Latin America and the Middle East where some clients had not been able to meet their contractual obligations to Intelsat. “If you could tell me where Venezuela is going to be in six months, I’ll tell you where our bad debt is going to be,” Kerrest said.

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