Terran receives key payment from Rivada Space
January 3, 2024
By Chris Forrester
Anxieties over Germany-based Rivada Space’s ability to pay certain milestone payments to satellite builder Terran Orbital have created serious headaches for Terran. A statement from Terrain on January 2nd said that “Rivada is up to date on invoices” for its order of 300 satellites.
The news went down very well on the New York Stock Exchange where Terran’s share price jumped 10.5 per cent, and took its price to $1.26 (€1.15) and thus escaping the risk of being delisted by the exchange.
However, the payment from Rivada was many days later than expected (and seemingly promised) and there is as yet no clarity on the actual amount paid. Terran had told shareholders back in October 2023 that it expected to receive $180 million “from its largest customer”, before the end of 2023.
Whatever was paid over, it was much less than $180 million. Terran added on January 2nd that it expected to report a cash balance or more than $70 million as at December 31st and $31 million more than its cash position at the end of September 2023.
Terran Orbital was now in a “strong financial foundation that we believe will enable us to continue to execute on our strategic and operational objectives,” said Marc Bell, Terran Orbital’s CEO.
Bell added that he expected Rivada to make additional milestone payments as the year continued.
The difficulties over Rivada have not helped management at Terran with lawsuits flying around and an attempted removal of Bell by disgruntled shareholders in November 2023.
A December 11th filing to the SEC stated that Terran is looking at “strategic alternatives” including a possible sale of the business or taking the business back into private ownership.