GomSpace suffers; new CEO
February 8, 2023
By Chris Forrester
Denmark and Sweden-based small satellite builder GomSpace has lost a major Spanish contract and revenue last year suffered dramatically as a consequence. GomSpace was building an air-traffic constellation of satellites for Spain’s Startical.
GomSpace has cut its workforce by 30 per cent (70 staff), and that CEO Niels Buus has stepped down to be replaced by current CFO Troels Dalsgaard as interim CEO.
Financially, the contract loss seems to have been prompted by extra costs that were not foreseen in the original contract with GomSpace’s client refusing to pay invoices of a reported 39 million Krona (€3.4m) with another 18 million Krona in dispute.
GomSpace also revealed that a potential major contract with the European Space Agency (ESA) had not been achieved.
Actual numbers reported by GomSpace were that revenues fell back last year by 7 per cent (to 198.4 million Krona). The company negotiated a debt facility last November of some 198 million Krona from the European Investment Bank.
“During 2022, we experienced an increased tendency for customer projects to be delayed, and increased costs to complete the projects, leading to decreased earnings and delays in customer payments. Earnings fluctuations are likely from quarter to quarter, mainly due to sizable non-recurrent engineering projects with a lower gross margin and increased R&D activities, and may also occur in the future,” GomSpace said in a letter to shareholders. “The impact could be increased costs of goods sold and investment costs, resulting in weakened margins and delayed customer payments and revenue.”