Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the conference call to report the first quarter 2021 financial results for Telesat. Our speakers today will be Dan Goldberg, President and Chief Executive Officer of Telesat, and Andrew Browne, Chief Financial Officer of Telesat. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Mr. Michael Bolitho, Director of Treasury and Risk Management. Please go ahead, Mr. Bolitho.
Thank you, and good morning. Earlier today, we issued a news release containing Telesat's consolidated financial results for the three-month period ending March 31, 2021. This news release is available on Telesat website at www.telesat.com under the tab Investors. We also filed our quarterly report on Form 6-K with the SEC this morning. Our remarks today may contain forward-looking statements. There are risks that Telesat's actual results may differ materially from the results contemplated by the forward-looking statements as a result of known and unknown risks and uncertainties. For additional information about known risks, we refer you to the Risk Factors section of our annual report on Form 20-F for the 2020 fiscal year, and in our quarterly report on Form 6-K, both of which can be obtained on the SEC website. The information that we are discussing today reflects our expectations as of today and is subject to change.
Except as required by securities laws, Telesat disclaims any obligation or undertaking to update or revise this information, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. I will now turn the call over to Dan Goldberg, Telesat's President and Chief Executive Officer.
Okay. Thank you, Michael. This morning I'll discuss our first quarter results and give an update on the business. I'll then hand over to Andrew, who'll speak to the numbers in more detail, then we'll open the call up to questions. Comparing our Q1 results to the same period last year and adjusting for foreign exchange rate changes, revenue was down 6%, operating expenses were 11% lower, adjusted EBITDA was 5% lower, and our adjusted EBITDA margin was 80%, slightly higher than the prior period. The largest contributor to the FX adjusted revenue decrease was the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly on customers serving the aeronautical and maritime markets. While the improvement in OpEx was driven by the reversal of a bad debt provision last quarter as compared to a bad debt provision we took in Q1 2020 in response to COVID.
Turning to some key metrics, backlog at the end of the quarter was $2.5 billion and fleet utilization was 79%. Looking at how our revenues broke down on an application basis, broadcast was 52% of total revenue, enterprise services 46%, and consulting another 2%. On a geographic basis for the year, North America accounted for 83% of revenue, Latin America 8%, EMEA 5%, and Asia 4%. Turning to our Telesat Lightspeed constellation, we made significant progress moving the program forward last quarter, including announcing that Thales Alenia Space is our prime contractor, that MDA will be building the advanced phased array antennas for the Lightspeed satellites, and that the government of Quebec is making a CAD 400 million investment in the project. Last month, we raised $500 million for Lightspeed by issuing a secured bond.
We expect to finalize the rest of the Lightspeed financing in the coming months. In parallel with that, we continue to do a lot of important work with Thales, MDA, and other key suppliers to progress the program. Lastly, we continue to make steady progress toward becoming a public company, something we expect will occur in the third quarter of this year, which can further support our growth plans. In sum, it was a busy quarter in what promises to be a busy year for us. With that, I'll hand over to Andrew.
Thank you, Dan. Good morning, everyone. I would now like to focus on highlights from this morning's press release and filings. In the fourth quarter of 2021, Telesat reported revenues of CAD 190 million, adjusted EBITDA of CAD 152 million, and generated CAD 79 million of free cash flow with almost CAD 900 million of cash on the balance sheet at quarter end. For the fourth quarter of 2021, when compared to the same period in 2020, revenues increased by CAD 18 million to CAD 190 million. Operating expenses decreased by CAD 6 million to CAD 40 million, and adjusted EBITDA decreased by CAD 14 million to CAD 152 million. The adjusted EBITDA margin was 80%, compared to 79.6% in 2020. Between 2020 and 2021, changes in the U.S. dollar exchange rate had a negative impact of $5 million on revenues, a positive impact of $1 million on operating expenses, and a negative impact of $5 million on adjusted EBITDA.
When adjusted for the changes in foreign exchange rates, revenue decreased by CAD 13 million for 2021 when compared to 2020. Operating expenses decreased by CAD 5 million, and adjusted EBITDA decreased by CAD 9 million. The largest single contributor to the decrease in revenues, excluding the impact of foreign exchange, was the adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on certain customers serving the commercial airline and other industries. The decrease in operating expenses for 2021 was a result of the reversal of a bad debt provision in the current quarter compared to a bad debt provision recognized in the fourth quarter of 2020. This improvement was partially offset by additional hires for Telesat Lightspeed program. Depreciation and amortization decreased by CAD 5 million when compared to the same period in 2020.
This decrease was mainly due to the end of useful life for accounting purposes of our Anik F1 North satellite in 2020. Interest expense decreased by CAD 13 million in the fourth quarter when compared to the same period in 2020. The decrease was mainly due to lower interest rates on outstanding debt and lower debt balances in 2021. The gains and losses on financial instruments reflect changes in the fair values of our interest rate swaps and the prepayment options on our senior and senior secured notes. In the first quarter of 2021, we recognized a loss of CAD 25 million relating to financial instruments. In 2021, we also recorded a gain on foreign exchange of CAD 35 million during the quarter, compared to a loss of CAD 291 million in the fourth quarter of 2020.
Income before taxes was CAD 63 million in the quarter, compared to a loss of CAD 282 million in the fourth quarter of 2020. Tax expense increased by CAD 26 million during the quarter when compared to the same period in 2020, on the largely attributable to gains on foreign exchange and certain financial instruments and lower interest expense in 2021. For the fourth quarter of 2021, the cash inflows from operating activities were CAD 99 million, and the cash outflows used in investing activities were CAD 20 million. Virtually all of the capital expenditures related to our low Earth orbit constellations. As we previously advised for 2021, we expect our cash flows used in investing activities to be in the range of $140 million -$160 million , including capital expenditures to further advance our Lightspeed program while we progress our financing arrangements.
Subject to the progression of refinancing, there may be meaningful additional CapEx this year in connection with Lightspeed as we move into full production, which we expect to happen in the coming months. We will update our CapEx guidance at that time. To meet our expected cash requirements for the next 12 months, including interest payments and capital expenditures, we had CAD 883 million of cash and short-term investments at the end of December, as well as approximately $200 million of borrowings available under our revolving credit facility. Approximately CAD 642 million in cash was held in our unrestricted subsidiary. In addition, we continue to generate a significant amount of cash from ongoing operating activities. At the end of the quarter, leverage as calculated under the terms of our amended senior secured credit facility was 4.42 :1 .
Telesat has complied with all the covenants in our credit agreement and indenture. A reconciliation between our financial statements and financial covenant calculations is provided in the reports that we filed earlier this morning. At the end of the quarter, on April the 27th, Telesat issued $500 million of 5.65% senior secured notes due in 2026. Telesat intends to use the net proceeds of this offering to fund additional investments into one or more unrestricted subsidiaries of the satellites of Telesat Lightspeed. That concludes our prepared remarks for this call, and now we'd be very happy to answer any questions that you may have, and we'll turn back to the operator.
Thank you. We will now take questions from the telephone lines. If you have a question and are using a speakerphone, please lift your handset before making your selection. If you have a question, please press star one on your device’s keypad. You may cancel your question at any time by pressing star two. Please press star one at this time if you have a question. There will be a brief pause while participants register for questions. Thank you for your patience. The first question is from Mike Pace from JPMorgan. Please go ahead.
Hi, everyone, and good morning. A few questions, and I'll just do them one at a time because it's easier for me, if that's okay. For the enterprise business, I'm wondering if you guys can dig into a little bit on the COVID impact in the Aero and Maritime segment of yours. I guess how much, in your estimation, didn't work its way in through the system in 2020? What was the lost revenue that you think there? On a sequential basis, I guess enterprise in Q1 versus enterprise in Q4, I realize there's an FX impact there as well too, but can you quantify if there was any incremental COVID headwind, I guess, sequentially as well? Thank you.
Hey, Mike, it's Dan. I didn't get the first part of your two-part question. Maybe I'll answer the second part, and I'm looking at my colleagues. On the top line, I don't think there was any incremental COVID headwind experienced in Q1 relative to Q4. Can you repeat the first part? I didn't follow.
Yeah. I guess just to simplify it, how much did the Aero and Maritime segment hurt the business in 2020 from COVID issues from aerotime and maritime customers? I'm trying to figure out, as that comes back in 2021, how much of a tailwind could that be versus 2020?
Let's see. I'm just trying to do some math here. If you give me a sec. Sorry. Hold on. Yeah. I'd say that on the EBITDA line, COVID impact was probably a little bit less than 2%.
Of total? Okay.
Yeah.
Okay, got it. In the broadcast business, I think there was some disclosure, a slight reduction from a North American DTH customer. It sounds vaguely familiar, so I don't know if that's a new disclosure or not, but correct me if I'm wrong on that. Can you-
No. This is the Shaw impact that we had disclosed, God, at this point, probably 24 months ago or something.
Okay. Got it. Short-term satellite lease revenues that didn't happen in 2020. Does that come back in the future at all, or is that just tough to know?
It's tough to know. We've always said on those things that they're lumpy, they're a bit unpredictable. As you note, we had none in 2020. There could be something this year. I don't think it'll be all that material. It won't be as meaningful as what we had seen in years prior to 2020. There could be something this year. If there is something, we'll flag it when it comes.
Got it.
I'm sorry, [Mike], but just to finish the thought. I do think, though, that there's still a requirement for operators preserving their frequency rights. Again, part of it, I think, is everyone's just trying to figure out what the future looks like. A lot of what we did was preserving C-band rights for satellite operators that wanted to launch mostly big GEO C-band platforms. I think that people are pausing a little bit right now.
Yep. Just a question on GEO versus LEO as it relates to, I guess, the enterprise business. Dan, I think you've said in the past that you thought around 25% of revenues might be better suited for your LEO constellation, and I just wanted clarity. Did you mean, if you said that, which I think you did, 25% of total or 25% of enterprise? Because historically that's how you talk, yeah.
Yeah. No, I'll sort of reaffirm that. Again, it's not science, it's art in some ways. Yeah, we've tried to be rigorous in terms of looking at the existing customer requirements we have and asking ourselves which could be provided more effectively with a LEO architecture. It's something like that order of magnitude, around 25%. Yes, of total revenue.
Got it. Then on the EchoStar and Hughes call, they mentioned that they bought some more capacity from you, I believe, for Puerto Rico. I'm just wondering, is this meaningful rounding? Then I'll just throw in my last question for the finance guys on the call. The Term Loan B, I realize that you have no more amortization because of the payment in the fourth quarter of 2020. I just wanted to understand, is there still a cash sweep that exists, or did the payments kind of push that out as well too?
I'll start with the Hughes deal. It was a good deal for us, and we have a good long-term relationship with Hughes and the larger corporate family there. I wouldn't say that was really material for us. It was a good deal. I'm glad we did it. It's good for their business too, but nothing like that we think is material. For sure, if we did, we'd be flagging it.
Mike, on the cash sweep, it pushes it out is the short answer to your question.
Got it. Thanks, guys.
Thank you. The next question is from Joe [Gregorovic] . Please state your name and proceed with your question.
Hi. Thanks for taking the question. I guess just following up on the last one here just now. Can you just talk about what your capital allocation priorities and how we should expect you to leverage cash flow, in particular at the RemainCo?
Bit hard hearing the back half of your question, Joe. The first one I think was capital allocation priorities, I think. You trailed off a little bit at the end. I couldn't hear the second bit.
Yeah. I'm just wondering how you think about allocating your capital in the core Telesat group.
In the core Telesat group, you mean in the restricted entity?
Yeah.
Okay. I don't know. I'll invite my finance friends to comment, and I can chime in as well.
I would say, in terms of, as we said this morning, in terms of our overall sort of CapEx forecast for this year, we're looking at a range of CAD 140 million-CAD 160 million. That does include some CapEx in respect of our Lightspeed program. Indeed, as we progress our financing, we will look to potentially later in the year to indeed roll out our Lightspeed program where we would expect to see meaningful more CapEx. That is our approach to what our CapEx allocation is as we see it this year.
Yeah, maybe I'll just add, because Joe was wondering, okay, what about the restricted entity? There, I guess Joe, it's probably not terribly different from how we've approached the business for the last long, long time, which is to say, we've got GEO satellites that will come up for replacement. Provided that we've got a good business case to replace those satellites, we'll certainly allocate some of the cash that should be building up at Telesat Canada for those purposes. I'd say that'd be priority number one if they're good accretive investments to be made in our existing GEO business, replacing existing satellites, building new GEO satellites, again, sort of opportunistically, we'll definitely do that. If those opportunities don't exist, it'll be more a focus on building cash and de-levering.
Thank you. That's helpful. I just have one more, too, following up on the enterprise question from earlier. Is there any reason to think that this business should recover in line with global travel and then as we kind of come out of COVID here?
It should. Prior to COVID, I think we've said that Maritime, Aeronautical combined represented about 10% of our business. I'm looking at my colleagues for affirmation as I say that, but yeah, that's right. With COVID, that declined. For sure, when our customers in the aero and maritime market, particularly the cruise market, are back in full swing, that's got to have tailwinds for us. Yeah, that's a great way to think about it, I think.
Thank you. Actually, I just thought of one more. What should we expect for cash taxes in 2021? I guess what drove the higher payment in the first quarter here?
In terms of our cash expectations, the higher cash tax payment, the higher tax expense on our P&L reflects indeed the gains on foreign exchange, which was quite substantial in the quarter, and indeed the lower interest that we received. We would say overall, in terms of what do we think our actual cash taxes will be for the full year, I'd say it's probably consistent to what we had seen in the Q1, I think on a kind of even basis going forward for the rest of the year.
Great. Really helpful. Thank you, guys.
Thank you. The next question is from Jason Kim from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Great. Thank you very much. First a big picture question for Dan. You got the legacy GEO business that generates a lot of free cash flow, but it has been declining. You have this exciting growth opportunity in LEO where you're leveraging a couple of things that you have that are unique. Those are priority orbital rights and your satellite technology leadership. Over the long term, do you look at these silos as permanently separate, or is it more of a temporary financing arrangement given the cost of the upfront investment in terms of how you're financing LEO? Over time, you think we'll recombine these two silos.
Yeah, it's for sure the case, Jason, that we're financing LEO like we're financing it not because we see it as some totally foreign distinct business addressing some new market. That wasn't the rationale at all. The rationale, as you can well appreciate, was that there are a whole series of restrictions that we face in the Telesat Canada silo in terms of raising the kind of capital that we need to fund the Lightspeed constellation. That pushed us into financing it in the separate credit silo, particularly given that these export credit agencies exist that will project finance. That absolutely was the driver. The way we plan to manage the business is, again, not to have two separate finance teams, legal teams, even sales teams, regulatory teams. Yeah, it's by and large overlapping customer bases and the like.
The plan is to manage the business with kind of one team, being careful to make sure that we're making the proper charges back and forth so that all that's done in a proper way and the like. Can I sit here today and say, "Yeah, in 2027, we'll collapse everything?" I don't know. Just honestly, I don't know. We'll have to see how the business evolves. We'll have to see where the financing markets are in the time and all of that. I certainly wouldn't rule it out. That might be a massively logical thing to do. Equally, we don't sit here today and say that's something that we're definitely going to do.
To take a step back and to your point, the reason we finance this thing the way we have is a reflection of the fact that, given the constraints that we had with our covenants and the like on the restricted side, it compelled us to finance this over in the unrestricted side.
Okay, that's very helpful. I know you've been asked this before, but I think it's worthwhile to hear from you again, and that is what can Lightspeed do that other LEO constellations cannot do or will have difficult time doing? Are you competing directly against them, or are you addressing different end markets or customers?
I'll answer this question, although, in full candor, some of it is a bit still shrouded in mystery. I say that because we don't have full visibility into the capabilities of some of these other systems that are talked about. Starlink, for instance, there's still not as much technical information out there that will allow a company like ours who's actually very sophisticated in terms of understanding the capabilities of different satellites and constellations. We still don't have all the information that we would need to really assess exactly what the capabilities are. I'd say that's true for Kuiper as well. Less true for OneWeb, where there's, I'd say, a lot more information that we have access to. With that caveat, I guess I'd say a couple things. One, we've always been very clear our focus is on the Enterprise segment.
It's backhaul connectivity for mobile network operators and ISPs. It's connectivity for the aeronautical market, the maritime market, and for the government services market, markets that we understand very well. We designed our constellation from day one to serve those markets. We worked very closely with certain customers in those segments to make sure that we were going to be able to meet their requirements. Which is not the case with some of the other constellations. I think Starlink, Kuiper in particular, have been very plain spoken about the fact that their principal focus is on the consumer market. I can tell you, if we, from day one, were focused on the consumer market, our constellation architecture would look different. They're different markets.
If you want to build a constellation to efficiently address one, you're almost by definition trading off your ability to efficiently address the other. OneWeb, on the other hand, I think we all know they started out talking about focused on the consumer broadband market and then kind of pivoted their business focus, not so much the design of their constellation, but their business focus over to more the enterprise market. Anyway, a lot of words, but important to note, we are focused on different markets. There is limited information about some of these other constellations. Back to our constellation, and why we believe that we're going to have a significant competitive advantage focusing on the markets that we're focused on. You got to roll up your sleeves and just get right into the weeds of these technologies.
All of our satellites have very high throughput, high capacity inter-satellite links. We think that's essential to effectively address the aeronautical market, the maritime market, and the government market. I don't know what Kuiper's going to look like with respect to that. Starlink is introducing some inter-satellite links, but I think that their capability is they're less capacious, I think, than our inter-satellite links. OneWeb doesn't have them. All of our satellites have processed payloads that gives us real advantages in terms of routing traffic, in terms of improving the efficiency of the link, which allows us to get, you squeeze out more bits, frankly, through a limited amount of spectrum.
All of our satellites have very high-performing phased array antennas, and incredible capabilities in terms of hopping beams, which gives us immense flexibility in terms of how we lay our coverage down in a very dynamic way over the visible Earth for any given satellite. Then you overlay on top of all of that what will be a very powerful kind of software program that will orchestrate all of those disparate parts into making it a very fast, responsive system. You add all that stuff up, it's going to be, we believe, just an extraordinarily compelling value proposition for the customers. Yeah, something that will give us, we believe, a competitive advantage in the market and our customers a competitive advantage in their market.
Anyway, Jason, a lot of words and again, some of it is still a bit shrouded in mystery in terms of what others are doing. That's how we think about it.
That's all very helpful. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from Walter Piecyk from LightShed Partners. Please go ahead.
It's LightShed. Thank you. Dan, can you give us an update? Verizon and AT&T are pretty fired up to get the C-band stuff cleared. Are you already incurring any expenses that you're getting reimbursed for? If not, if it's really just about getting those incentive payments, obviously that near-term one for 2021 looks solid. The larger payments that can extend to 2023, do you have better clarity now that maybe there's going to be some acceleration of those payments rather than having to wait till maybe 2022 or 2023 that you could see a lot of that front-loaded?
We believe that we'll be in a position to be entitled to all of the payments that were earmarked for Telesat either by the end of the year.
Sure
either by the end of this year or sometime, if it should slip, in the first half of next year. We believe that we've taken all the actions that we need to take to clear all of the spectrum that we and our customers have been using.
Hold on, Dan. Are you talking about the CAD 85 million relative to the 2021 clearing targets or the full amount, meaning the CAD 260, you think also could be accelerated to the first half of next year?
Yeah. We were provided CAD 344 million off the top of my head.
Good.
We believe that we'll have taken all the actions that we need to take to be fully entitled to all of that, and that if things happen like the FCC says they'll happen, yeah, we should be in receipt of all of that money within either before the end of this year or we think shortly thereafter.
Well, the FCC certainly has enough cash to make that payment, that's for sure. Do you get taxed on that, or is there a way you can receive that in a tax-efficient manner?
We do get taxed on that.
Okay.
Yeah, so.
Got you. Obviously, U.S. moving pretty quickly. Obviously, C-band a lot more important than millimeter wave. There must be some pressure on the Canadian regulators to hash out what the plans are for up there. What's going on with that? What's the latest in terms of moving forward on C-band for Canada?
We don't have an update on it, to be honest with you. I think I had said, I think it was on the last call, we'd gotten a question about this, and we had said that the regulator plans to auction the 3.5 GHz spectrum. I think that was supposed to take place by the end of June. Some parties I saw recently had asked for a delay in that. That already represented, I think, a six-month delay. I think it originally was supposed to happen by the end of last year, because of COVID, they pushed it out, and I believe that certain wireless operators in Canada had asked the regulator to delay it further still. The minister, I believe, indicated that they won't do that.
I believe it's the case that the 3.5 GHz auction is to take place, I think, before the end of June of this year. The C-band spectrum is adjacent to that, and as I've said before, I think it would make sense for the bidding parties, the wireless operators, to know what the full mid-band picture looks like, ideally before they're having to participate in an auction for the other chunk of the mid-band spectrum, the 3.5 GHz. The C-band proceeding, as I said last time, should be ripe for decision. The record is set. We all made comments, reply comments, and the like. I don't have an update as to when a decision will be taken. If I'm right and the regulator also sees a logic in getting that decision out there before the 3.5 GHz auction, that suggests something should be coming relatively soon.
But-
Right. Your point is that they've made it clear that they're not delaying this, but it seems odd that every one of the operators, I think, has indicated that, look, we need to know what's going to happen with the C-band. If they're not delaying it, doesn't that kind of imply that we should hear something within the next 30 days?
Yeah, potentially, but the regulator for all I know, might be prepared to launch the 3.5 GHz auction with the C-band proceeding still pending. I don't know. For sure, I think we'd want.
That sounds like bad policy, but I guess you never know.
No, we'll have to see. We'll have to see. Yeah, but we would expect-
More-
Yeah. Just to finish the thought. We would expect to see a decision on that soon. We're just guessing.
Just one last one. As you progress on the LEO launch, I assume there's ongoing dialogue with potential customers. How has that gone since the last quarter? Has there been traction, or does it not really occur until you get closer towards launch?
Oh, no. We're heavily engaged with the customer community right now.
What's the feedback been like so far?
Yeah, it's all very positive. The feedback's been very positive. As I've said before, we already have a substantial amount of committed backlog associated with LEO. Yeah.
Is there any surprise in the types of customers? This is a new product for you, right? It is obviously going to be much better in terms of its performance. Have there been surprises in terms of new applications that potential customers have been interested in or have been clear with you about as part of this constellation?
Not really. I'd say the only one, and it wasn't so much of a surprise, but there's certainly been interest in uber low latency connectivity for high-frequency trading. Maybe there's a great opportunity there. In the main, as I've said before, the verticals that we're focused on, we know them well. We know those customers well. There's education for sure that's required with the customer community to help them understand exactly how this new constellation will operate. No, I don't think there have been any surprises in terms of the kinds of applications that customers will want. Not at least now.
It'll be interesting actually, because it seems like the reduced latency to be one of the many benefits should theoretically really broaden the market opportunity. No?
We believe that the addressable market for a low latency LEO constellation, yes, is much bigger than the addressable market for a higher latency GEO constellation, for sure. Absolutely. We anticipated all that. I was just responding to have we been surprised, and the answer is.
I think in future quarters, it'll be great to get maybe some representative examples of new industries that this new product and this new service has enabled or at least generated some interest for, even if you're talking about it at a higher level.
Yeah. If we see that, we'll certainly share. Our expectation is it's the commercial airlines, it's the cruise ship companies, it's government users, it's the mobile network operators around the world who need this connectivity today. The requirements exist today, but there's a gap in terms of what's available today. What they want is a affordable, low latency, high throughput, highly reliable, ubiquitous broadband pipe, and that's just not there today. What they have instead is a higher latency, maybe more expensive GEO connectivity pipe or some microwave or something like that. That's the big opportunity here for us.
Yeah. Thank you. Thanks, Dan.
Okay, thanks.
Thank you. The next question is from Tim Lash from Twin Oak Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, thank you. Just wanted to understand on what path the financing was on vis-a-vis the manufacturing process. Are they on separate tracks? Is manufacturing moving forward? Where are we in that side of things? Is it contingent on completing the full financing, or are the wheels in motion? Is the design baked? Where are we in the actual constellation manufacturing process, and how does that look?
Thanks, Tim. We are, and we said this, I think I make note of it in the release. I certainly make note of it in my comments at the start of the call. We are doing work with Thales. We're doing work with MDA. We're doing work with some other suppliers. I think we've made some announcements about other companies that we're working with to start moving Lightspeed forward. I should also say we've been doing work with Thales now for probably two years, de-risking all sorts of elements around Lightspeed, like the processors, the inter-satellite links, doing work with MDA on the phased array antenna. A lot of that work had been going on for some time. Since we announced Thales, MDA, we've done, I'd say, more work still. We haven't completed the financing at this time, as we've said.
We've made some good progress even so far from the start of this year with the investment by the government of Quebec, with the bond issuance that we did last month. We are in what I would describe as very advanced discussions with the export credit agencies about the terms under which they would fund the program. I mentioned that we've done all the work that we need to do in the U.S. to clear our C-band spectrum, which should unlock another round about CAD 300 million for the program. That's where we are right now. That's where we are with respect to the financing. That's where we are in terms of moving the ball forward with our suppliers right now.
Got it. Just to follow up on that, in terms of launch vehicle providers, any update there? I know Blue Origin, their timeline keeps slipping out. Any change to your timeline? Are you going to be able to slot in alternative launch providers? Where does that stand?
Yeah, we think we've been tracking Blue Origin very closely, and we believe that they'll be certainly up and running by the time that we need them. We will be launching probably prior to the time that well, I'm not sure about their latest schedule. For us, yeah, we have real conviction that they're going to be in the game when we need them to be in the game. We are in discussions with other launch providers as well, and I expect we'd be in a position to make some announcements about that certainly before the end of the year, is our expectation.
Just when thinking about your launches, obviously bigger satellites, what is sort of the launch capacity on these vehicles in terms of satellites per launch that you're able to get up with the people you're talking with?
It's different with the different rockets, obviously. It also differs slightly depending on which orbit we're launching into. For Blue Origin, it's round about 30. Again, our satellites, I need to emphasize this, and I've emphasized it on prior calls. These are meaningful satellites. We're not launching little CubeSats or NanoSats. These are pretty big, very capable, very advanced satellites. To say that we can put 30+ satellites on a New Glenn rocket, it's significant. They've got a great big fairing. The performance on that rocket is very impressive. That's a lot of mass and a lot of volume that we're launching to orbit. On a Falcon 9, I think if we're going to inclined orbit, we're looking at around 15, 16 satellites, something like that. If we're going to polar, more like around 13 satellites, something like that.
Got it. One last question on the launch, given where you are in your financing timing and your relationships, any change to your ultimate launch timeline for the constellation? Are we still on track with the original or the announced expectations for going into orbit?
Yeah. We expect to start launching in right around two years' time, something like that, we'll commence. No changes to the expected schedule.
Excellent. Thank you.
Okay, thanks.
Thank you. The next question is from Robert Strougo from RIS Investments.
Yes, we have some formidable competition with Elon Musk, who's able to raise billions of dollars from Google and other enterprises while we're trying to get financing, and we already have an ongoing great business and probably a better product than Elon Musk is launching. He also launched Tesla from nowhere. He's seeking customers now. He's putting up a lot of stuff there. We're talking about two years in the future. We're still talking about financing, and we don't have an IPO yet. How do you respond to that?
Robert, what I'd say is, we are doing work on the constellation. It's not like we're sitting on our hands. We're doing a lot of work, and spending real money right now, as you can see when you look at our financials with our suppliers. We're moving forward in that regard. We are bullish on the design and the capabilities of our constellation, particularly given the markets that we're focused on. We do, as you say, have an existing business. We know these customers. We understand their requirements. The other thing I'd say is we've never believed that we'd be entering this market without any competition. We've been operating in a highly competitive environment for decades now, and I don't expect the future to be any different. This is not going to be a winner-take-all game. You're right.
Elon Musk is a formidable entrepreneur and businessman, SpaceX is a formidable company. If they focus well and execute well, they should be successful in the market. I don't think their success implies that Telesat and some of the other competitors also aren't going to enjoy success in the market. The market is massive. It's growing. We're focused in part on different segments of the market. On the financing, look, I feel good about where we are on the financing. We've got a significant amount of cash on the balance sheet today. I'm confident that the lenders that we've been working with are going to follow through. The IPO is well in train. As I mentioned, we expect to go public in the third quarter. Yeah, we're bullish about our outlook.
Can we get a partner that's in a private enterprise like an Apple or some other company? Google threw money at Musk. Why can't they throw some money at us? Because we got a great partner.
I don't know, Robert. Listen, we're always open, of course, to working with good partners that can help us be even more successful. We're very focused right now on the key things that we need to get done, finish the financing, continue to move the work forward with our suppliers, get the public offering done, get the C-band money in and the like. That's our focus. For sure, we'll look always to have strong partners as we go forward. Thank you, Robert.
Let me comment. The last question I asked, do you have any comment on the thousands of satellites that Musk is putting up now, the space junk? Will they be getting in your way or the quality of the product compared to your product? You're years behind them, and Musk is a guy that can really improve things very quickly and change things very quickly, and you've got to give him a lot of credit on that score. CAD 3 billion is a lot of money to spend on something that could be obsolete in two years with Elon Musk on the other side of that transaction.
It's a mixed question you ask there, Robert. On the one hand, I heard a question.
I'm a little mixed up.
It's a good question.
I love your company. We bet quite a bit of money on your company. We think you're going to be a big winner. You already are a big winner. You will be a big winner. Again, you're against a formidable guy you may know, Musk, who's got billions behind right now. He's putting up thousands of satellites right now as we speak.
Robert, all I'd say is, look, we appreciate your support and your confidence in the company. What can I tell you? We're super optimistic about our plan. As I said, Starlink can be successful. Telesat can be successful. There will be some others that are going to be successful serving this big market as well, and I'm confident Telesat's going to be one of them.
Great. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from Jonathan from [Rupert Capital]. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Hey, Dan. With respect to, if we go back to Canadian C-band, if we were to see our proposal accepted and we received 200 MHz of C-band spectrum in Canada with a flexible use license, how do you think about the timing on getting that hypothetical 200 MHz monetized and money in our coffers?
Well, probably the big part of your question, and thanks for it, is about whether the Government of Canada were to greenlight our proposal, which as you note, would have us engaging in effectively running an auction. I think, from the time were the government to take a decision like that, it would probably take us some months working with an external auction expert that we have engaged with already. It would take us probably some months just to make sure that we reflected all of the different requirements, restrictions, and whatnot, that the regulator would invariably articulate as part of it. That's my guess. It would take us some months, and then in terms of how long it would take to get cash in the door, it's too early to say whether the spectrum would first need to be cleared.
There are questions about that. I don't know. I guess what I'd hate to add, Jonathan, still it's premature. We're really unsure what the regulator is going to do with our proposal. Certainly, our proposal was that Telesat would be in a position to auction the spectrum. Could be the case that the regulator takes a decision that looks more like what the FCC did, where the FCC auctioned the spectrum and instead made clearing payments and cost reimbursement payments to the satellite operators. That could be another path. The regulator could reject our approach altogether. It's hard sitting here today to move quickly to the logistics about what that would look like. Anyway, long story short, if they green light our proposal, we've already done a lot of work. We already have engaged one of the auction experts that does this stuff for a living.
Yeah, it'd probably take us a couple of months before we'd be in a position to start the auction. I wouldn't want to speculate right now on how long it would take from there, from the conclusion of the auction to actually have cash in.
Got it. Okay. With respect to the IPO timing and the reference to Q3, once we're public or tell us about just what type of marketing that we should expect in either the run-up to the IPO or post the IPO in terms of an analyst day or roadshow marketing. As we sort of launch this process and start courting equity investors. How do we think about just the timing on that, and then what additional disclosures around the business plan on Lightspeed and other details will be shared with the marketplace?
Here, I guess I just need to be a little bit careful because regulators tend to scrutinize what companies say when they've got a pending transaction like this. What I would say is that, and we shared this before, we've engaged Goldman Sachs and BMO to support us in the process, and we're going to work closely with them. Won't be their first rodeo, frankly, not our first rodeo either. We'll work closely with them to make sure that we execute this transaction in a good, thoughtful, professional way. Certainly, I believe that Lightspeed will be an exciting part of Telesat's growth story, and so certainly my expectation is that we'll be talking to investors about that. Jonathan, I probably can't say much more than that at this point.
Fair enough. Thank you very much.
Okay, thanks.
Okay, we have time for one more question.
Perfect. The last question is from Brandon [Kirk] from York Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, thanks for hosting the call today and taking the question. Just to clarify something from earlier, the 10% of revenue you say is from Maritime and Aero, is that all of your Maritime and Aero revenue, or is that just the more consumer-driven use cases such as commercial air and cruise?
It's pretty much all of it. Again, it was kind of around about 10%, and I suspect that it's lower now. I haven't looked at it today. Maybe a little bit lower given COVID. Yeah, it was meant to encompass pretty much all of our Aero and Maritime, I would say probably excluding government though.
Could you possibly quantify how much of that is the more directly impacted use cases, such as commercial air and cruises?
That'd be almost all of it. The satellite capacity that we provide to our customers that's then used for providing broadband connectivity to cruise ships, other yachts and whatnot, and to the commercial airline market, companies that we've worked with, like Gogo and the like. Yeah, that would account for pretty much all of that 10%.
Okay, appreciate the color there. If I look at the reconciliation at the end of the quarterly report, it looks like there's about CAD 7 million or CAD 8 million worth of services that were provided by the restricted subsidiaries to the unrestricted subs. Could you provide a little bit more color on what exactly is included in here? Whether because of this, I should maybe think about EBITDA at the restricted sub as being a little bit higher than what you're reporting for the consolidated entities?
Well, basically, Brandon, it's Michael Bolitho . Right now, Telesat Canada provides most of the services that the unrestricted subs need to develop LEO. That's going to evolve over time. It's the executive, the legal, the finance, but it's also at this point in time, it's the satellite engineering and development work, and that will transition over time as we sign contracts and complete work. In terms of the second part of your question, our covenant EBITDA calculation actually does take into account. We are obliged to back out the effect of the unrestricted subsidiary when we calculate covenant EBITDA. Covenant EBITDA reflects the expenditures that are being made on behalf of Telesat LEO because they're backed out.
Yeah, I see that that's shown in the LTM calculation. I guess it would just be helpful to maybe see the covenant calculation on a quarterly basis too, just to get a better sense of what the restricted group EBITDA is looking like on a quarterly basis.
Yeah. We've never provided that. When we think about it, we've never provided it historically.
Okay. Yeah, just something that would be helpful. The last thing was just one more housekeeping item. For the bad debt reversal that flowed through this quarter versus the bad debt provision in the first quarter of last year, can you quantify each of those?
What we could say, I mean, the bad debt approximately is about CAD 6 million. It's hopefully sort of two-thirds recovery and CAD 2 million was actually in the provision we took from last year. That's how you get to the number.
All right, great. Thank you. That's all from me. Appreciate you hosting the call.
Thank you.
Okay. Operator, thank you very much for your support on this. Thank you all for joining us, and we look forward to chatting with you when we release our Q2 numbers. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
Have a great weekend.
Thank you. The conference has now ended.