UrtheCast Corp. (TSX: UR) (“UrtheCast” or the “Company”) today provided an update with respect to its ongoing corporate initiatives.
Further to the update provided during its third quarter earnings release on November 14, 2017, the Company has evaluated multiple opportunities and selected an institutional investor with which it has entered into an exclusivity agreement on December 15, 2017 for the previously announced US$175 million financing for the development of the UrtheDailyTM Constellation. The Company is currently working closely with the investor to finalize closing documentation as soon as practicable, with a target completion date for the financing extended to the end of January 2018. Completion is subject to final definitive documentation being completed and agreed, the lender’s completion of confirmatory due diligence and receiving approval of our Board of Directors. Following funding, UrtheCast will have a path to the launch and commercialization of the UrtheDailyTM Constellation. With signed binding agreements for both data subscriptions totaling in excess of C$100 million, and a contract to build the UrtheDailyTM Constellation, the Company continues to target the commencement of the UrtheDailyTM operations in the 2020 growing season notwithstanding the extension of the financing closing date.
With recently announced partnerships with SI Imaging Services, Beijing Space View Technology and e-GEOS, along with the expanded assets available through the PanGeo Alliance, UrtheCast is now better positioned for 2018 with an increased number of product offerings, and the ability to provide customers with a more diversified level of decision making data.
As announced in the third quarter earnings release, the Company’s EO revenues were impacted by a delay in the award of a major contract and accordingly, annual revenue excluding non-cash revenue, and Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be in the range of C$40 million and negative C$5 million, respectively1. In addition, the Company obtained a waiver from its lender Banco de Sabadell S.A. with respect to its €25 million term loan in relation to certain financial covenants for the year ended December 31, 2017, and a six-month deferment of its required December 2017 principal payment obligation.
The Company continues to focus its efforts on securing near term contracts for the SAR Accelerator missions, including obtaining the necessary export applications. The Company continues to await final approval of the financing condition by the customer’s government agency for the previously announced SAR XL contract. As a result of the focus on the SAR Accelerator missions, the Company’s timeline for the OptiSARTM Constellation has been pushed out to 2023 at the earliest. The Company also confirms that the conditions precedent to the agreement with the confidential government customer for the OptiSARTM Constellation (as disclosed on January 17, 2017) have not been satisfied and the contract will expire on December 31, 2017.
1 Revenue excluding non-cash revenue, and Adjusted EBITDA are non-IFRS measures. Refer to the Non-IFRS Measures section of the Company’s third quarter MD&A for an explanation of these measures and reconciliation to the Company’s reported financial results in accordance with IFRS.
About UrtheCast
UrtheCast Corp. is a Vancouver-based technology company that serves the rapidly evolving geospatial and geoanalytics markets with a wide range of information-rich products and services. The Company operates Earth Observation (EO) sensors in space, through its subsidiary Deimos Imaging, including two satellites, Deimos-1 and Deimos-2, to produce imagery data for partners and customers in multiple markets. UrtheCast processes and distributes imagery data and value-added products on behalf of the PanGeo Alliance, a network of seven satellite operators with a combined 13 medium- and high-resolution EO sensors. Additionally, UrtheCast is developing and expects to launch the world’s first fully-integrated constellation of sixteen multispectral optical and SAR satellites, called OptiSAR™, and a satellite constellation designed to capture high-quality, medium- resolution optical imagery of the Earth’s entire landmass (excluding Antarctica) every day, called UrtheDaily™. Common shares of UrtheCast trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange as ticker “UR”.
For more information, visit UrtheCast’s website at www.urthecast.com.
