Arianespace has announced in a statement that the board of directors started operations to increase the company’s share capital “in order to offset the losses recorded in 2009 and strengthen its financial structure.”
A spokesman confirmed that the…
Arianespace has announced in a statement that the board of directors started operations to increase the company’s share capital “in order to offset the losses recorded in 2009 and strengthen its financial structure.”
A spokesman confirmed that the company was already working on the capital increase but declined to comment on its value.
Earlier this year, the company posted an E71.2m technical loss for fiscal 2009/2010, which it said was due to the discharge of provisions for technical and commercial risks. In light of this, the board of directors decided to propose a capital increase to the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders. Arianespace also reported full year sales of E1.029bn, an increase on the E955m recorded in 2008, but down on the E1.046bn projected for 2009.
When asked about financial expectations for 2010, the spokesman said “We’re hoping to balance our accounts. Business is doing better and if we manage to make six launches, it will already be an improvement on last year.”
Arianespace indeed announced in the same statement that it was planning three new launches before the end of 2010. The next one will take place on 28 October, carrying the Eutelsat W3B and BSAT-3b satellites. The other launches are scheduled for the end of the year, carrying another four geostationary satellites. So far, the company has conducted three launches but suffered several delays due to a series of technical issues earlier in the year. In particular, the launch of SES’ Astra 3B and the German military’s COMSATB2 2 was delayed by two months before successfully being launched on May 25.
The company also said that it will use the Soyuz launcher to orbit six Globalstar-2 satellites in October from Baikonur. In addition, Arianespace will diversify into the mid-sized satellite sector with several Soyuz launches from a new launch pad being developed in Kourou, French Guiana, by spring 2011.
Contracts have already been signed for 17 Soyuz flights, including five missions to launch the first batch of satellite for the European navigation system Galileo. Soyuz will be followed by the launch of the light-lift launcher Vega also in 2011. Vega will carry small satellites into space at a cost of E30m-E40m per flight.
Since the beginning of the year, the company said it signed nine launch contracts for geostationary satellites, on top of six contracts for Soyuz launches. In a previous SatelliteFinance report, Arianespace CEO Jean-Yves Le Galle had said that the company’s target for 2010 was to sign 10 or 12 new contracts to launch geosynchronous satellites.
