OneWeb expects $1bn in 3-5 years
May 16, 2022
Eutelsat, a significant shareholder in low-Earth orbit constellation OneWeb – which has some two-thirds of its fleet (428 craft) already in space, says that it sees OneWeb generating $1 billion (€0.96bn) in revenues within 3-5 years of its deployment.
A note from equity analyst Sami Kassab at investment bank Exane/BNPP to clients anticipates that OneWeb will expand its existing service later this year and enjoy full deployment in 2023.
OneWeb’s then revenues will be shared between shareholders with Eutelsat booking the constellation’s distribution revenues onto its top line and its cost of purchasing OneWeb capacity onto its Opex.
“Eutelsat will be the only GEO operator able to sell LEO capacity to its customers when OneWeb enters into service,” states Kassab.
As to Eutelsat’s overall Q3 trading picture, the bank’s note says that Eutelsat’s management has reaffirmed all its guidance for FY22 (ending on June 30th) but noted that this outlook excluded any impact from the war in Ukraine.
“Eutelsat generates 6.3 per cent of its group revenues from Russia and is exposed to three main risk factors: sanctions, the ability of its customers to pay in cash as well as the forex rate of the Ruble (contracts have an automatic adjustment clause in case of prolonged currency weakness). Leonardo DRS Global Enterprise Solutions accounts for c2 percent of group revenues. Leonardo DRS GES, a distributor, was recently acquired by SES,” says the bank.
OneWeb suffered from a cancellation of its Arianespace launch contract with Russia, and has replaced that launch contract with similar agreements with New Space India (the commercial arm of India’s Space Research Organisation) and Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
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