Vman, the future is bright. The profits are about to start rolling. How much of a bird's transponder rates drop to the bottom line? Is that the 'margin' of 67% referenced below and can it be expected to continue? From Loral's year end report,
Fixed Satellite Services
Loral's fixed satellite services (FSS) segment is positioned to be Loral's chief growth driver in 1999.
…Revenues and EBITDA for the fixed satellite services segment more than tripled over the previous
year. FSS revenue for 1998… was $254 million versus $83 million last year. EBITDA on
the same basis was $171 million, a margin of 67 percent, up from EBITDA of $52 million, or 62 percent
of revenues, for 1997. Funded backlog in the fixed satellite services segment totaled $746 million, almost
double the $396 million in backlog at year-end 1997…
Loral Skynet's Telstar 6 satellite was successfully launched yesterday, February 15, aboard a Proton
rocket. Telstar 7 and Orion 3 are scheduled for launch by the end of the second quarter. The projected
utilization rates on the in-service dates for Telstars 6 and 7 are approximately 46 percent each and for
Orion 3, 35 percent. Orion 2 is scheduled to be launched at the end of the third quarter of 1999, extending
Loral's FSS fleet to 10 satellites by the end of this year.
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Taking these numbers, schedules and transponder rates (equally distributed, $1.6 mil/C trans/yr , $2.2 mil/Ku trans/yr)
Telstar 6 comes on line in March/April -99 at 46% utilization - $46 mil/yr
Telstar 7 comes on line in August - 99 with 46% utilization - $42 mil/yr
Orion 3 come on line in July -99 with 35% utilization - $31 mil/yr
For a total of $119 mil/yr.
The street likes to see the money, if Loral can continue to get the birds up, the money will be there and the street will see the light. The best thing is that there is plenty of capacity left to increase the money flow.
Jeff Vayda
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