The local firm said it brought in revenues of $220 million in the three months ending Sept. 30, up $19 million from a year earlier.
Telesat said this was largely the result of deploying its Nimiq 6 satellite in the second quarter, as well as the start of commercial service of the Canadian payload aboard its ViaSat-1 satellite in December 2011.
In a conference call with analysts Thursday, Telesat president and CEO Dan Goldberg said he expected revenues to be “fairly consistent” in the fourth quarter.
Telesat said it reversed last year’s third-quarter $141-million loss and recorded a $115 million profit thanks primarily to foreign exchange gains, specifically the weakening of the U.S. dollar relative to the Canadian loonie ands its effect on the company’s U.S.-dollar-denominated debt into Canadian currency.
During the quarter, Telesat completed construction of its Anik G1 satellite, which it expects to launch early next year. The company has already signed a 15-year contracts with Shaw and Paradigm Services for use of satellite’s capacity.
“(Anik G1) has considerable expansion capacity that already is under long term contract with blue chip customers,” said Mr. Goldberg in a statement.
“In light of the expansion capacity that we have recently brought on line, the anticipated near term launch of Anik G1, and our industry-leading contractual backlog, we remain well positioned to achieve continued growth going forward.”
One of Telesat’s co-owners, the Public Sector Pension Investment Board, recently gave notice that it was exercising its option to force the Ottawa-based satellite firm to conduct an initial public offering.
No update on the potential IPO was provided Thursday.
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