Chris Forrester

In a report filed by journalist Chris Forrester at the Advanced Television infosite, Australian-based satellite facilities company Speedcast International is reportedly having further financial challenges.

Speedcast let its CEO (P J Beylier) go in February after what the company admitted “had been a challenging year.” Listed – although currently suspended – on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX), the company has been allowed to delay submitting its audited accounts for 2019 until April 30th as it continues to negotiate with its lenders and trade creditors for extra time.

The extra time (the Forbearance Agreement) runs until April 17.

Last week, the company revealed it had made an unaudited loss of $748 million during 2019 which included $414 million of write-downs and is seeking a bridging loan of $180 million.

Current trading has not been helped by the current virus uncertainty which sees Speedcast badly hit by the close down of the cruise industry, which was a major contributor to the firm's revenues.

Speedcast informed the ASX that it currently has $669 million worth of debt as of December 31 and reported that total liabilities exceeded total assets by $202.7 million as of December 31.

The company said, “There exists a material uncertainty that the group will be able to continue as a going concern.” This includes extra bridging finance to “allow Speedcast to continue operating and progress its re-capitalization and restructuring to reduce the overall leverage of the company”.