Iridium Communications Inc. (Iridium) announced on its Q2 2017 earnings call that it amended its export credit agency-backed credit facility with a consortium of nine banks led by Société Générale S.A. The amendment allows Iridium to defer until Q1 2019 $100m in payments owed to Thales Alenia Space (Thales), manufacturer of the satellites comprising Iridium’s Iridium NEXT constellation, and to delay until March 31, 2019 $98m in payments required for a debt service reserve account, but restricts Iridium’s use of funds received from Aireon LLC, a global-air traffic surveillance company whose payloads are hosted on Iridium NEXT. Together with other adjustments, including suspension of preferred dividends, the amendment is expected to afford Iridium more than $200m of liquidity, equal to the amount owed to Iridium by Aireon. Read more related news in Space Business Review August 2017.
