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Telesat shares rise, revenues fall as CEO says first LEO satellites on track for 2026 launch

May 6, 2025

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Telesat shares edged up Tuesday even though the Ottawa firm reported lower revenues than a year ago as its CEO said it has “a robust pipeline” of sales opportunities for its next-generation satellites. Dan Goldberg told analysts Telesat remains on track to launch its first low-Earth-orbit satellites by the end of next year, saying the company is “making really good progress across all of the different work streams” on the US$3.5-billion project, known as Lightspeed. Telesat’s recently signed multi-year agreement with Viasat that will see the California-based company use Lightspeed to deliver high-speed internet to customers in the aviation, maritime, enterprise and defence markets offers “powerful and concrete testimony to the capabilities” of the LEO constellation, Goldberg said in a Tuesday morning conference call. “We have a robust pipeline of opportunities and strong momentum and are very focused on closing additional deals,” he added. “I think that there will be other commercial players out there that will sign significant deals,” Goldberg said later. “Maybe they won’t quite be at the Viasat level, but they could still be in that nine-figure kind of zip code.” Telesat reported revenues of $117 million in the first quarter of 2025, a 23 per cent drop from the same period a year earlier, while the firm’s adjusted EBITDA was down 39 per cent year-over-year to $67 million. Those numbers were not a surprise, however. Telesat said last month it expects its revenues to fall as much as 35 per cent in 2025 compared with the previous year as it phases out some of its aging GEO satellites and existing enterprise customers migrate to competitors such as Starlink. The company’s net loss for the quarter was $51 million, down slightly from a loss of $52 million in the first quarter of 2024. Goldberg reiterated Tuesday that he believes the company’s decision to go big on LEO satellites will pay off in the long run, noting Telesat already has an order backlog of nearly $1.1 billion for Lightspeed and expects that tally to continue to grow. “From our perspective, everything we’re seeing out there in the market reinforces our conviction that LEO is ascendant in the market,” he said. “I think our thesis remains intact.” Investors seemed to react positively to the firm’s latest earnings report. Telesat’s shares were up more than five per cent in mid-afternoon trading on both the Toronto Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq. In addition to seeing strong interest from enterprise customers, Telesat is also expecting “meaningful commitments” from governments looking for more secure high-speed communications technology as defence initiatives, particularly in the realm of space, become a bigger priority around the world, Goldberg added. “We’re very bullish on our opportunities there and think that’s going to be a meaningful part of the Lightspeed business,” he said. Goldberg said Telesat officials have had “multiple conversations with various governments around the world” but wouldn’t get into specifics about any potential agreements. “As we have deals to announce, we’ll announce them.”