One year ago, and when Intelsat’s share price was at a pretty miserable $3 a share its prospects were far from good. Burdened by a massive debt load, it was no surprise that the sharks were circling.

Yesterday, Intelsat’s share price ended a whisker away from $20 (and with a 26.8 per cent rise at one point during the day and hitting $20.57 at one stage) with investors thrilled at the prospects of a pot of gold waiting at the end of a C-band rainbow.

One commentator described Intelsat’s share performance as being something like a Hollywood film in terms of excitement. Certainly, Intelsat CEO Steve Spengler must be looking forward to a healthy – and justified – bonus! But first, he has to convert the rainbow’s pot of gold to certainty.

Some 11.9 million shares changed hands on June 20^th, almost three-times the typical daily volume and helped by investment bank RBC Capital Markets giving the company an “outperform” rating and a massive $30 price target.

Last week also saw Intelsat raise around $730 million in a combination of new shares and lower-cost borrowing, and which will permit it to retire around 5 per cent of that $14 billion debt load.

Moreover, the RBC note to investors says that a favourable FCC ruling on the re-use of some of Intelsat’s C-band spectrum (and which would also impact SES in a similar fashion) would add $19 to the value of a share.

The Federal Communications Commission says that it will decide on July 12^th whether to make more use of the mid-band spectrum. FCC chairman Ajit Pai says that the Commission has received some  “creative ideas” for the usage of this spectrum.

Other posts by Chris Forrester:

1. IRIS2 contract signing at year-end
2. Icasa “over-reached” in confiscating StarSat kit
3. Starlink tests D2C in Romania, US, Japan
4. European telcos unite against Starlink D2C
5. Rivada insists “deadlines will be met”
6. Ergen will gain “greatest opportunity” by losing DISH
7. Rivada’s latest problems could be fatal
8. SES confirms 25c dividend
9. Intelsat gets licence to rescue Galaxy 25

Categories: Blogs, Business, Inside Satellite