[Satellite TODAY 05-12-10] Iridium Communications saw revenue, service and subscriber equipment growth across all of its business units in the 2010 first quarter, offset by costs related to its merge with GHL Acquisition Corp., for a second straight three-month period, the MSS operator announced in its latest financial results, released May 11.
    Iridium’s total revenues increased 7.9 percent for the first quarter to $81.7 million, with commercial service revenues increasing 11 percent to $40.9 million, government voice and machine-to-machine (M2M) data service revenues increasing 3.1 percent to $13.8 million and subscriber equipment revenues increasing 6.5 percent to $21.8 million. Growth in service revenues caused Iridium’s EBITDA to increase 19.6 percent to $33.6 million during the three-month period.
    Iridium’s subscriber base stands at 390,000 — up from about 328,000 in the comparable quarter last year. Billable subscribers increased 14.3 percent in the quarter to about 359,000.
    Despite its strong performance, Iridium suffered a net loss of $1.3 million during the first quarter, compared to net income of $9.7 million during the same period in 2009, due to $18.4 million of non-cash acquisition expenses from the GHL transaction, which was approved by stockholders in September.
    Iridium’s executive leadership and analysts praised the operator’s results. CEO Matt Desch said the company saw promising growth in its government sector, driven by voice and netted Iridium services.
    Raymond James analyst Chris Quilty confirmed Desch’s projections that the operator’s first quarter performance positions the company to meet or exceed its 2010 operational EBITDA forecast of $145 to $155 million. “However, the more important near-term driver remains the ECA financing event, which we believe could happen within the next 30 to 45 days,” said Quilty.
    While summarizing the first quarter results, Desch confirmed that Iridium is set to select the prime contractor for its Iridium Next constellation. “We have made substantial progress towards securing the comprehensive export credit financing we need to fund our new constellation and we expect to complete that financing this summer.”