Eutelsat expects $11 billion revenue after EU's Starlink rival comes online

By Gianluca Lo Nostro

Oct 29 (Reuters) - Eutelsat expects commercial services revenue of more than €10 billion ($11.1 billion) between 2032 and 2040 as it takes a leading role in the European Union's planned alternative to Elon Musk's Starlink satellite internet service, it said on Thursday.

The Franco-British operator had been chosen to lead the low Earth orbit (LEO) segment of the EU's IRIS² network that will feature 330 satellites. The first IRIS² satellites are scheduled for launch in 2029, with ​initial services expected from 2030.

Eutelsat has gained prominence as Europe tries to reduce the bloc's reliance on US technology after President Donald Trump's return to office, since it owns OneWeb, the only LEO satellite network alternative to SpaceX's Starlink.

In a trading update, the Paris-based company said its backlog now includes €8.9 billion of revenue from designing and building IRIS², to be recognised primarily between 2027 and 2031. That alone is more than seven times the €1.24 billion of revenue Eutelsat generated last year, and lifts its total backlog to €12.1 billion from €3.4 billion at end-June.

The forecast is a major boost for a company aiming to offset its waning video broadcasting business with satellite internet services.

OneWeb has more than 600 satellites and 229 more are planned in a €1 billion expansion.

Eutelsat said it will invest a combined €3.39 billion in shared and commercial infrastructure on the IRIS² network between 2027 and 2034, in return for access to more than twice OneWeb's current bandwidth.

Despite the upbeat outlook, first-quarter revenue fell short of expectations. Revenue from its four operating businesses fell 2.1% like-for-like to €278.3 million in the three months to end-September. That was below the €291 million average of a company-compiled analyst poll.

Eutelsat confirmed its financial targets for 2026-27 and 2028-29.

($1 = 0.8971 euros)

(Reporting by Gianluca Lo Nostro; Editing by Sahal Muhammed)