Satellite company NewSat (ASX:NWT) has signed a deal worth up to $US114 million ($110.44 million) to provide capacity on its upcoming Jabiru-1 satellite.
The three-year deal, which has a minimum value of $US105 million, will see NewSat provide transmission capacity for global communications service provider TrustComm in the Middle East.
Countries covered under the arrangement include Afghanistan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Qatar and Pakistan.
NewSat founder and CEO, Adrian Ballantine, said the major deal is “tangible evidence of the step-change taking place ... as we move from being a reseller of satellite capacity to the owner of satellites”.
He said NewSat will earn around US$28 million of the contract's value in the first year after the launch of Jabiru-1. The Ka band geostationary satellite is scheduled to take off in the last quarter of 2012.
To help fund the Jabiru-1 project, the company in May entered into financing deals, including a placement and bank facility, worth $12 million. Earlier in the year, NewSat arranged to acquire the orbital slots required to support the Jabiru fleet.
NewSat last month revealed it had won a total of $16 million worth of new business in FY11.
NWT shares grew 40 per cent in Wednesday's trading to $0.007.
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