Rivada will not be ‘revenue positive’ for a few years, says Declan Ganley

*Businessman Declan Ganley has said he does not expect his company Rivada Networks to be “revenue positive” for the next couple of years as it works towards the launch of a planned space satellite telecoms constellation.

Accounts filed with the Companies Registration Office in Dublin reveal that accumulated losses of more than €3.1 million had built up at Rivada’s Irish subsidiary at the end of last year after the company lost €514,000 in 2022.

Speaking to The Irish Times, the former leader of defunct political party Libertas said the Irish firm was a minor subsidiary within the group. “Our main centres of activity are Munich, Berlin and across the US, so the Irish office, basically we’ve got some of the team that are based out of there, including me,” he said. “That’s just an operating loss in that subsidiary. It’s par for the course, really.”

Based in Germany, a related group company, Rivada Space Networks, is currently developing a constellation of 600 low-earth-orbit communications satellites, infrastructure that will host an end-to-end data and communications network for businesses and governments. “Rivada now is focused on getting the infrastructure deployed, getting the constellation up,” he said. “We’re funding via both equity and a debt raise for a well-in-excess-of $3.1 billion infrastructure deployment. So we won’t be revenue positive, certainly for the next couple of years.”

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The project has been the subject of a spate of lawsuits in the US between Mr Ganley’s company and an investor, David Schuman. In June, a judge in New York ordered Mr Ganley to hand over control of Rivada Space Networks to a company controlled by Mr Schuman, who claimed the Rivada company was insolvent.

That related to a February court judgment against Rivada over a debt of $3.13 million plus interest. However, the United States district court for the southern district of New York declared, also in June, that the debt had been satisfied in full, meaning that Mr Ganley retains control of Rivada Space Networks.

Related matters are being heard in court in Delaware where Mr Ganley has filed a counterclaim to a $16.2 million debt judgment against him.

Mr Ganley said: “One never wants to be dismissive of these things entirely. But frankly, it’s a nuisance and the thing is, when you have projects that are this high profile, this is unfortunately not unusual.”

Separately, Mr Ganley is involved in litigation with a group of Chinese investors over the control of the satellite licence, originally issued to a Liechtenstein company and then transferred to Rivada. Overall, he said there were “well over 100 lawsuits” ongoing related to the project.

* This story was updated on Wednesday, October 18th, 2023