NewSat: Financial Close Reached for Jabiru-1 Satellite Project

NewSat, Australia’s satellite company, is pleased to announce that financial close has been reached with the US Ex-Im Bank and COFACE for US$390.1 million of debt funding for the Jabiru-1 satellite project.
NewSat Founder and CEO, Adrian Ballintine said “The journey to complete the Jabiru-1 satellite financing has now concluded, and the project is fully funded. The favourable funding outcome includes US$390.1 million of cost-effective debt funding at around 3% interest on attractive terms, such as drawing down the debt during the construction period without any principal repayments until after launch.”

NewSat has completed or obtained waivers for all the conditions precedent to drawdown the debt funding of US$300.5 million from the US Ex-Im Bank and US$89.6 million from the COFACE Promesse de Garantie. The drawdown will commence with a US$78.9 million payment to Lockheed Martin, taking total progress payments for construction of the Jabiru-1 satellite to US$169.9 million. In addition, a progress payment of US$34.7 million will be made to Arianespace for the launch service, following the initiation of mission analysis in December 2013 in Newtown, Pennsylvania, USA.

Jabiru-1 will be Australia’s first commerical Ka-band satellite and will provide superior coverage over South East Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.

“With US$644 million of pre-launch customer contracts already secured, I look forward to keeping shareholders up-to-date on progress as we approach the launch of Jabiru-1, from satellite construction at Lockheed Martin in the USA to the launch service preparation at Arianespace in France” said Mr Ballintine.