Viasat has issued interim statements on its current financial position and expectations, and including an update on the situation with ViaSat-3 Americas (VS-3 F1) which suffered a major malfunction with its giant antenna following its launch on May 1st. It has also issued its statement on the loss of Inmarsat I6-F2 which has also failed.

Viasat has spent the past months testing its new satellite and now says that while the satellite’s payload is functional, it expects to recover less than 10 per cent of the planned throughput.

However, the statement says: “With the flexibility and agility of its integrated satellite fleet, the limited ViaSat-3 F1 capacity, the addition of the next two ViaSat-3 generation satellites, ground network mitigations, and third-party bandwidth commitments, the Company remains confident that it will meet the current and future needs of its mobility customers and is well-positioned to achieve its financial growth objectives. Viasat also confirmed that it has insurance coverage of $420 million in place for ViaSat-3 F1 and will finalise its claim before the end of the year. The Company will not require a replacement satellite for ViaSat-3 F1.”

Viasat’s interim statement added that the integration of its Inmarsat acquisition is proceeding well and is ahead of plan, noting: “Viasat synergy estimates of approximately $80 million in annual operating expenses and approximately $110 million in annual capital expenditures are now anticipated to be fully realised in FY25, versus over an approximate three-year period as originally planned. Further, Viasat expects to identify and realize additional savings in subsequent phases of the synergy program.”

It also updated the market with its current thinking as regards capital expenditure, in particular the non-replacement of VS-3 F1, saying: “Following Viasat’s determination that a replacement for ViaSat-3 F1 is not necessary, the majority of the capital expenditures related to the ViaSat-3 constellation have been completed. Viasat is forecasting capital expenditures in FY25 to decline from FY24 and to be in the range of $1.4 billion to $1.5 billion, including completion of the final stages of the ViaSat-3 constellation and the continued build of [the Inmarsat] GX satellites. This range is inclusive of capitalised interest and funding for the replacement of the capabilities of the I6 F2 satellite. Viasat is committed to meaningfully reducing aggregate capital expenditures and expects accelerated, continued declines in capital expenditures as satellites currently under construction are completed. The Company confirms that it has insurance coverage of $348 million in place for the I6 F2 satellite and will finalize its claim before the end of the year.”

Viasat says it expects to report more than $3 billion of liquidity as of September 30th 2023, including approximately $2 billion of cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments with no near-term outstanding debt maturities. These preliminary estimates are subject to the closing of the second fiscal quarter of FY2024 and finalisation of financial and accounting procedures and may change.

Other posts by Chris Forrester:

1. Scotland’s rocket launch gets closer
2. SpaceX tops 6,300 Starlinks; IPO rumours
3. Full details of SES, Intelsat deal
4. Ariane 6 launch campaign underway
5. Virgin Galactic in stock split
6. Thuraya-3 suffers major problem
7. AST SpaceMobile hit by Class Action
8. Optimism under threat at SES
9. Rivada visits Terran Orbital’s manufacturing HQ

Categories: Blogs, Business, Inside Satellite, Satellite

Tags: Inmarsat, Viasat, ViaSat-3