尊敬的用户您好，这是来自FT中文网的温馨提示：如您对更多FT中文网的内容感兴趣，请在苹果应用商店或谷歌应用市场搜索“FT中文网”，下载FT中文网的官方应用。
Investors are growing increasingly concerned about the finances of two of Europe’s largest satellite operators as the rapid rise of Elon Musk’s Starlink deepens the pressure on the continent’s ailing incumbents.
投资者越来越担心欧洲最大两家卫星运营商的财务状况，因为埃隆•马斯克的星链的迅速崛起加深了欧洲大陆境况不佳的老牌企业的压力。
The cost of buying insurance against France’s Eutelsat and SES of Luxembourg defaulting on their bonds has soared to record highs, as investors fear the two will struggle to repay their debts, which together amount to about €7bn.
为法国的欧洲通信卫星公司(Eutelsat)和卢森堡的SES公司债券违约购买保险的成本已飙升至历史新高，因为投资者担心这两家公司将难以偿还合计约70亿欧元的债务。
Legacy satellite operators have struggled to adapt to the rise of new communication services from low Earth orbit, as their traditional, higher- orbit broadcasting businesses decline.
随着传统高轨广播业务的衰落，老牌卫星运营商一直难以适应来自低地球轨道的新通信服务的兴起。
In just five years Musk has expanded Starlink to more than 6,000 satellites, more than 60 per cent of the spacecraft in orbit, serving some 130 countries. His company is also increasingly taking market share in the lucrative market for in-flight connectivity with airlines, including beating Eutelsat to win a contract with Air France.
在短短五年时间里，马斯克已将“星链”扩展到拥有6000多颗卫星，占在轨航天器的60%以上，为约130个国家提供服务。他的公司还在航空公司机上网络连接这一利润丰厚的市场中占据越来越多的市场份额，包括击败欧洲通信卫星公司赢得与法国航空公司的合同。
Pressure on Eutelsat and SES is expected to intensify when Amazon’s Project Kuiper launches its broadband satellite service, expected later this year.
预计今年晚些时候亚马逊的Project Kuiper将推出宽带卫星服务，届时欧洲通信卫星公司和SES面临的压力将进一步加大。
“Europe’s incumbents are in danger of being left behind,” said one high-yield credit investor who has recently sold out of Eutelsat’s bonds, citing Starlink’s technological advances.
“欧洲老牌运营商有被甩在后面的危险，”一位高收益信贷投资者表示，他最近以星链的技术进步为由抛售了欧洲通信卫星公司的债券。
Musk’s relentless expansion of Starlink, alongside with the European duo’s sluggish response to the new low Earth orbit challenge, have driven down their share prices to record lows.
马斯克对星链不遗余力的扩张，以及这两家欧洲公司对新的低地球轨道挑战的迟缓反应，将他们的股价推低至历史新低。
In response to the emerging competition, Eutelsat and SES have sought to consolidate, with Eutelsat snapping up the UK’s OneWeb in 2022 and SES buying Intelsat for $3.1bn last year.
为了应对加剧的竞争，欧洲通信卫星公司和SES曾寻求整合，前者于2022年收购了英国的OneWeb公司，后者去年以31亿美元收购了Intelsat。
Credit investors have bought credit default swaps, derivatives that act like insurance contracts that pay out if a company reneges on its debts.
债权投资人已经购买了信用违约掉期(CDS)——作用类似于保险合同的衍生品，如果一家公司债务违约，就会赔付。
Spreads on five-year CDS on Eutelsat, which has debts of almost €2bn, have climbed more than 800 basis points to 1,220bp in the past six months. That implies that investors now give Eutelsat a 65 per cent chance of defaulting on its bonds.
Eutelsat负债近20亿欧元，其五年期CDS的利差在过去六个月攀升了800多个基点，达到1220个基点。这意味着投资者现在认为Eutelsat债券违约的可能性为65%。
The equivalent CDS spreads for SES, which has about €5bn worth of debt made up mostly of euro-denominated bonds, has also hit an all-time high in recent weeks. On Thursday it touched 309bp compared with 100bp at the start of 2024, giving it a probability of default of 22 per cent.
SES的同类CDS利差在最近几周也创下了历史新高，该公司拥有价值约50亿欧元的债务，其中大部分是欧元计价债券。本周四，该利差达到309个基点，而2024年初为100个基点，违约概率为22%。
Eutelsat said its low Earth orbit product “is a highly competitive global offering” and said it was “uniquely positioned” in the market. SES did not respond to a request for comment.
Eutelsat表示，其低地球轨道产品“是极具竞争力的全球产品”，并称其在市场上“具有独特优势”。SES没有回应置评请求。
Last month, Moody’s downgraded Eutelsat’s credit rating by two notches from Ba3 to B2, plunging it further into junk territory.
上个月，穆迪将Eutelsat的信用评级下调两级，从Ba3降至B2，使其进一步陷入垃圾级。
The credit rating agency blamed the cut on Eutelsat’s takeover of the start- up OneWeb, which has far underperformed its own predictions. Last year Eutelsat said OneWeb’s revenues were barely half the target forecast at the time of the takeover, and Eutelsat downgraded its earnings outlook up to 2025.
穆迪将此次评级下调归咎于Eutelsat对初创公司OneWeb的收购，后者的业绩远远低于其自身的预测。Eutelsat去年称，OneWeb的收入仅为收购时预测目标的一半，Eutelsat还下调了其截至2025年的盈利展望。
Ernesto Bisagno, an analyst at Moody’s, said the downgrade in part reflected the lower earnings forecasts, increased competition “and the significant refinancing needs in 2027 at a time when its cost of funding has increased materially.”
穆迪分析师埃内斯托•比萨尼奥(Ernesto Bisagno)表示，评级下调在一定程度上反映了下降的盈利预测、竞争加剧，“以及2027年的大量再融资需求，届时其融资成本已经大幅增加。”
SES’s debt is rated at BBB at Fitch and Baa3 at Moody’s, placing it just inside of investment-grade territory.
惠誉将SES的债务评级定为BBB，穆迪将其评级定为Baa3，将其置于投资级范围之内。
“It’s just too hard to tell how that industry will play out with Starlink’s advances . . . Visibility of that threat is troublesome,” said another high-yield bond investor.
另一位高收益债券投资者表示：“很难说星链的进步将对该行业产生怎样的影响.……这种威胁的可见性很麻烦。”
In December, the EU signed a €10.6bn deal to develop a European satellite network, with 61 per cent funded publicly and the rest coming from the SpaceRise industrial consortium, led by Eutelsat, SES and Spanish operator Hispasat.
去年12月，欧盟签署了一项价值106亿欧元的协议，开发一个欧洲卫星网络，其中61%由公共资金资助，其余来自由Eutelsat、SES和西班牙运营商Hispasat领导的SpaceRise工业财团。
Eutelsat is counting on the project, called Iris², to help fund the development of its next generation of OneWeb satellites and is the project’s single biggest private sector investor, committing €2bn. The project will not be ready to operate until 2030 at the earliest.
Eutelsat指望这个名为Iris²的项目为其下一代OneWeb卫星的开发提供资金支持，它也是该项目最大的私营部门投资者，承诺投资20亿欧元。该项目最早也要到2030年才能投入运营。
Despite Europe’s attempt to boost its own industry, Italy’s government, led by Giorgia Meloni, has entered preliminary talks with Musk’s SpaceX over a potential deal worth up to €1.5bn to provide secure military communications.
尽管欧洲试图提振自己的卫星产业，但为提供安全的军事通信，焦尔贾•梅洛尼领导的意大利政府已与马斯克的SpaceX就一项价值高达15亿欧元的潜在交易进行了初步谈判。
The deal could involve using Starlink services for “encrypted data communications”, according to the Italian government.
据意大利政府称，该交易可能涉及将星链服务用于“加密数据通信”。