Earlier this month, Terran Orbital CEO Marc Bell announced at a company-wide meeting that Terran Orbital may be about to receive a large payment from its largest customer. Rivada Space Networks is in the final stages of raising money to help fund the $2.4 billion Terran-built megaconstellation, and revenue currently accounts for the vast majority of Terran’s backlog.
While Terran is pursuing other lucrative contracts that could involve billions of dollars in work, its $2.4 billion contract with Rivada is the largest it has secured to date. Earlier this quarter, Terran had to adjust its full-year financial outlook after Rivada delayed paying out incremental funding for a total contract worth $180 million.
Terran’s chairman and CEO delivered the news to employees at a Dec. 19 meeting.
“I and [Rivada CEO] Declan Ganley in Washington, D.C., last week,” Bell told employees during the meeting, a recording of which was obtained by TechCrunch. “He told me they expect to close the financing tomorrow. He showed me the documents. I saw them, I read them. He texted me this morning, which is probably Thursday, Friday now. […] As long as Christmas comes, I will be happy. There’s nothing wrong with receiving a good Christmas gift. “
Rivada, the German subsidiary of US-based Rivada Networks, signed a $2.4 billion contract with Terran in February this year to build 300 satellites for the mega-constellation. Rivada has a separate agreement with SpaceX to begin launching satellites in April 2025.
Of course, Christmas has come and gone, and neither company has publicly announced the financing. TechCrunch reached out to both companies for comment, but neither responded by press time. Bell said later in the meeting that even if Rivada closes financing, the two entities would need to make changes to their contracts, which could delay payment terms and announcements.
“He’s been very transparent to me, so I have no reason not to trust him,” Bell said of Ganley. “But unfortunately, he’s not the one writing the check, but someone else is writing him the check. But if he gets the check, I have to assume we’ll get the check too. But we do have to do a contract mod . So that’s one thing that might hold us back because we have to make changes to the contract. […] But we will at least get paid for the invoices we are owed, which is $9 million in invoices. But I want to get a big check like everyone else because it will help our stock price and everything else in the world tremendously. “
During a November investor call, Bell said Rivada’s financing and payment delays were “quite unexpected” to both companies. He added that Rivada would be funded by “a large sovereign” – possibly a sovereign wealth fund – and the companies expect the funding to eventually be completed.
As of November, Terran reported a future work backlog of $2.6 billion, with $2.4 billion coming from the Rivada contract. Even without the expected milestone payments, Bell told employees he still expects the company to generate $130 million in revenue this year, a significant increase from the $94 million the company generated in 2022.
The company is also pursuing other high-value contract opportunities, including with a constellation the Space Development Agency calls the Proliferation Warrior Space Architecture. Terran has built and delivered satellites for Tranche 0, the initial part of the constellation, is currently building 42 satellite buses for Tranche 1, and will build an additional 32 satellite buses for Tranche 2. Bell said the company will also seek additional satellite buses. The contract was awarded to a Tranche 2 satellite variant called Gamma, for which it is likely to be the prime contractor (for other contracts, Terran is a subcontractor to the prime winner, Lockheed Martin).
“We feel really good about Gamma and how we’re going to win. We’re looking at starting Gamma instead of just being a backup […] But now we may finally be on the leading edge of these things. That would be huge. This changes the dynamic. But I haven’t made a decision yet and we’re going to sit down and discuss this with Lockheed. “
Bell also told employees that the company is still discussing taking Terran private, but the goal is to “take it private and then go public again in a traditional way, not a stupid market cap like we have today.” explain.
Terran Orbital’s stock price has been falling since it went public via a SPAC (reverse merger with a special purpose acquisition company) last March. The company’s stock price was $10.96 on its first day of trading, but is currently trading at about $1.22.
