The Belgian export credit agency, the Office national du ducroire (ONDD), has guaranteed two separate bank loan agreements worth €208m with satellite operator Eutelsat.
The first loan is a €121m 11.5-year term loan paying an all-in interest rate of…
The Belgian export credit agency, the Office national du ducroire (ONDD), has guaranteed two separate bank loan agreements worth €208m with satellite operator Eutelsat.
The first loan is a €121m 11.5-year term loan paying an all-in interest rate of 2.07% and will be used to help finance the construction of Eutelsat 8 West B.
Thales Alenia Space was contracted to build the satellite in October 2012. It contains 40 Ku-band transponder and 10 C-band transponders and will be launched to 8W in Q3 2015.
The second facility is a €87m 11.5-year term loan bearing an interest rate of 2.23% and will be used to fund a future launch on an Arianespace Ariane 5 rocket.
A Eutelsat spokesperson said that launcher is not specifically dedicated to a given satellite, such as Eutelsat 8 West B, although that remains an option.
Both facilities will begin amortising three years after signing and the interest is based on 6-month Euribor.
The banks providing the loans have not been disclosed but are understood to be large international banks.
The financing is interesting given that export credit agency deals in the satellite sector have typically been dominated by two players, the French ECA Coface and the US Export-Import Bank. While other countries’ ECAs, such as those of Canada, China and Japan, have also supported deals, these have been the result of supporting specific satellite manufacturing or launch contracts. Belgium, though, does not have a significant space sector, although Thales does produce certain satellite components there, as well as on-board control and command equipment for the Ariane 5, Soyuz and Vega launchers.
For Eutelsat securing financing at such low rates is a logical move. The spokesperson added that unlike some ECA-backed deals the terms on the debt are no more constraining than those on Eutelsat’s existing corporate loans.
They added that the company is monitoring what other ECAs beyond Coface and ExIm Bank are proposing.
Eutelsat and RSCC order new broadcast bird for 36E hotspot
Eutelsat and Russian satellite operator RSCC have strengthened their strategic partnership by jointly ordering a new satellite to cover the Russian Federation.
EADS Astrium has been selected to build Express-AMU1 / Eultesat-36C that will be launched in 2015.
The spacecraft will provide follow-on and expansion capacity for the Eutelsat-36A satellite that currently provides for broadcast services from 36E.
Based on Astrium’s Eurostar E3000 platform, the Express-AMU1 / Eultesat-36C satellite will contain up to 70 Ku and Ka band transponders, have a launch mass of 5,700 kg and a power in excess of 15 kW.
The satellite will predominantly serve the burgeoning Russian satellite TV market, although Eutelsat will also utilise some capacity to bolster its broadcast offering in sub-Saharan Africa.
