Eutelsat Communications SA saw its shares plunge on Friday after reporting a deepening loss for the first half of its financial year.
The Paris-based satellite operator said net loss widened to €873.2 million for the six months to December 31, widening from a €191.3 million loss a year earlier.
Shares in Eutelsat plummeted 65% to €1.51 each in London on Friday morning.
The steep decline was driven by a €535 million goodwill impairment on its geostationary satellite assets, reflecting lower expected future cash flows amid rising competition and a shift in demand to low Earth orbit connectivity services.
The company also booked €117 million in satellite impairments and saw depreciation costs surge to €433.7 million from €316.1 million.
Revenue for the six months to December 31 rose 5.9% to €606.2 million, with growth in connectivity services offsetting a continued decline in video broadcasting revenue.
Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation fell 8.4% to €334.9 million, with the Ebitda margin dropping to 55.2% from 63.8%.
Despite the mounting losses, Eutelsat said the first-half performance was in line with its expectations.
It also reaffirmed its full-year targets and announced a €200 million reduction in its capital expenditure forecast, now expected between €500 million and €600 million.
CEO Eva Berneke said: ‘The past few months have seen the alignment of several factors paving the way for Eutelsat’s LEO build-out strategy: first, the exercise of the put option for the sale-and-lease-back of our passive ground infrastructure, with proceeds due H1 calendar 2026 and second, confirmation of the European Union’s IRIS2 multi-orbit constellation representing a key step in Eutelsat’s LEO strategy, which in turn defines the road map for the interim LEO constellation extension.
‘We are actively working on a financing plan in line with our strategic road map and longer term leverage objective.’
Looking ahead, Eutelsat warned of ‘more challenging conditions’ for GEO-enabled broadband in Europe, but said it remains committed to integrating its OneWeb LEO network to strengthen its position in satellite connectivity.
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