---
title: "Eutelsat's order book jumps to €12.1bn: why the IRIS² boost is not profit | Orbit Alpha"
description: "Eutelsat's order book rose to €12.1bn from €3.4bn as €8.9bn of IRIS² construction work was booked, about 3.8 times its market value. But that work is kept out of its margin targets, Eutelsat must invest €3.39bn itself, and the rest of the order book fell to €3.2bn."
url: https://www.orbitalpha.cloud/articles/eutelsat-iris2-order-book-12-billion
updated: 2026-10-29
---

# Eutelsat's order book jumps to €12.1bn: why the IRIS² boost is not profit
Updated 29 Oct 2026 from live prices and SEC filings
Eutelsat's order book rose to €12.1bn from €3.4bn as €8.9bn of IRIS² construction work was booked, about 3.8 times its market value. But that work is kept out of its margin targets, Eutelsat must invest €3.39bn itself, and the rest of the order book fell to €3.2bn.

## What happened
On 29 October 2026, after the Paris market closed, [Eutelsat](https://www.orbitalpha.cloud/stocks/etl) published its trading update for the quarter to 30 September. The headline was its order book: €12.1 billion, up from €3.4 billion at the end of June, because the EU's IRIS² secure connectivity constellation has entered construction and Eutelsat booked €8.9 billion of IRIS² construction work. It expects to recognise most of that between 2027 and 2031.
Eutelsat also said for the first time that access to IRIS² should bring more than €10 billion of commercial services revenue between 2032 and 2040. In return it will invest €3.39 billion between 2027 and 2034: €2.23 billion in shared infrastructure and €1.16 billion in its own commercial infrastructure.
The quarter itself was weak. Revenue from its four operating businesses fell 2.1% like for like to €278.3 million, below the €291 million analysts expected according to Reuters, as video revenue fell 17.6% while OneWeb (LEO) revenue rose 31.1% to €70.9 million. All financial targets for 2026-27 and 2028-29 were confirmed. The shares closed at about €2.01 before the release and traded at €2.00 on Tradegate that evening, so the market's full reaction comes on 30 October.

## Orbit Alpha view: a bigger order book, not a bigger profit pool
On paper this is transformational. The €8.9 billion of IRIS² construction work is about 7.2 times Eutelsat's last annual revenue of €1.24 billion and about 3.8 times its market value of roughly €2.37 billion (our calculation from about 1.18 billion shares and the 29 October close of about €2.01). Spread evenly over 2027 to 2031, it would add about €1.8 billion of revenue a year, more than Eutelsat's whole business brings in today.
But three details in the release point the other way. First, Eutelsat keeps IRIS² construction out of its adjusted EBITDA margin targets. Our reading is that it does not expect this work to earn anything like the margins of its satellite services: much of the money is likely to pass through to the manufacturers building the satellites, such as Airbus and Thales Alenia Space. Second, Eutelsat has to put in €3.39 billion of its own, about 1.4 times its market value, or about €424 million a year over 2027 to 2034 on our even-spread calculation, on top of about €1 billion for 229 more OneWeb satellites. Third, the rest of the order book went backwards: excluding IRIS², it fell to about €3.2 billion from €3.4 billion in June, and fell to 2.6 years of revenue from 2.7.
| Figure | Amount | What it compares to (our calculation) |
|---|
| IRIS² construction backlog | €8.9bn | 7.2x last year's €1.24bn revenue; 3.8x market value |
| Eutelsat's own IRIS² investment, 2027 to 2034 | €3.39bn | 1.4x market value; about €424m a year |
| Expected IRIS² services revenue, 2032 to 2040 | over €10bn | about €1.1bn a year, roughly 90% of last year's revenue |
| Order book excluding IRIS² | about €3.2bn | down from about €3.4bn at 30 June |
| IRIS² construction revenue booked in the quarter | €5.1m | 0.06% of the €8.9bn backlog |

The real prize is the services revenue after 2032: more than €10 billion over nine years is about €1.1 billion a year, close to Eutelsat's entire revenue last year, from access to more than twice OneWeb's current capacity. Set against €3.39 billion of investment, that is roughly three euros of revenue for each euro invested, but it is revenue, not profit, and it only starts once the commercial Ku-band layer is fully operational, targeted for mid-2032. Until then, investors are being asked to fund a heavy spending programme while the old video business shrinks.
So the €12.1 billion order book says less about near-term earnings than the headline suggests. What it does show is that Eutelsat's future now rests on two European government-backed bets, OneWeb and IRIS², with funding the open question: the release gave no net debt figure and said only that Eutelsat will keep looking at ways to optimise its debt.

## Read next
[MDA's $100M IRIS² antenna deal: 2.5% of backlog, 20% of the satellitesMDA Space will supply digital antennas for the first 66 IRIS² satellites under a deal worth more than $100M with Thales Alenia Space. That is only about 2.5% of its…](https://www.orbitalpha.cloud/articles/mda-space-iris2-antenna-contract)[Eutelsat (ETL): live price, filings and contractsToday's move, the latest SEC filings, insider trades, government contracts and the next results date for Eutelsat.](https://www.orbitalpha.cloud/stocks/etl)

## Why Eutelsat is doing it
Eutelsat's video business, still its largest single line at €110 million in the quarter, is declining fast. IRIS² gives it a government-anchored low Earth orbit network to grow into, sovereign European customers who want an alternative to [SpaceX](https://www.orbitalpha.cloud/stocks/spcx)'s Starlink, and capacity it would struggle to finance on its own. As leader of the constellation's LEO segment it designs, deploys and operates 330 satellites, with the first launches from 2029.

## What it means for other space stocks
- [SES](https://www.orbitalpha.cloud/stocks/sesg) leads the IRIS² medium Earth orbit segment and expects to commit up to €1.35 billion to it, according to Via Satellite. Eutelsat's numbers give investors a first sense of the scale of construction revenue partners can book, and of the funding they must find.
- [OHB](https://www.orbitalpha.cloud/stocks/ohb) won a contract worth nearly €1 billion from SES at the end of August to build 18 MEO satellite platforms for IRIS². With the programme now in construction, that work moves from award to delivery, with first launches planned for 2029.
- [SpaceX](https://www.orbitalpha.cloud/stocks/spcx) is the competitor IRIS² is designed to answer in Europe. A funded, government-backed rival from 2030 matters most for Starlink's government and defence sales in the EU.

## What to watch next
- The share reaction on 30 October, the first trading session after the release.
- Eutelsat's annual general meeting on 26 November 2026, which includes a share buyback and cancellation authority.
- How fast IRIS² construction revenue builds this year from €5.1 million in the first quarter, which Eutelsat expects to rise materially.
- Any refinancing or new debt to fund the €3.39 billion IRIS² commitment and the €1 billion OneWeb top-up.
- Whether operating revenue reaches the €1.5 billion to €1.7 billion target for the year to June 2029, with an EBITDA margin above 60%.

## Questions and answers

### Why did Eutelsat's order book jump to €12.1 billion?
Because €8.9 billion of IRIS² construction work was added once the EU programme entered construction. Excluding IRIS², the order book fell to about €3.2 billion from €3.4 billion at the end of June.

### Does the IRIS² backlog mean much higher profits for Eutelsat?
Not directly. Eutelsat keeps IRIS² construction out of its margin targets, which suggests much of it will pass through to satellite builders. The bigger prize is more than €10 billion of services revenue over 2032 to 2040, which needs €3.39 billion of Eutelsat's own investment first.

### How big is IRIS² compared with Eutelsat's market value?
The €8.9 billion construction backlog is about 3.8 times Eutelsat's market value of roughly €2.37 billion, and its own €3.39 billion investment is about 1.4 times, on our calculation from the 29 October close.

## More
- [ETL stock: live price, filings and contracts](https://www.orbitalpha.cloud/stocks/etl)
- [SESG stock: live price, filings and contracts](https://www.orbitalpha.cloud/stocks/sesg)
- [OHB stock: live price, filings and contracts](https://www.orbitalpha.cloud/stocks/ohb)
- [OHB wins EUR 554m Sentinel-3 contract: big for backlog, small per year](https://www.orbitalpha.cloud/articles/ohb-esa-sentinel-3-ngt-contract-554-million)
- [MDA's $100M IRIS² antenna deal: 2.5% of backlog, 20% of the satellites](https://www.orbitalpha.cloud/articles/mda-space-iris2-antenna-contract)
- [All Orbit Alpha analysis](https://www.orbitalpha.cloud/articles)

## Sources
- [Eutelsat Communications: First Quarter 2026-27 Revenues (Business Wire, 29 October 2026)](https://www.finanznachrichten.de/nachrichten-2026-10/69978767-eutelsat-communications-first-quarter-2026-27-revenues-004.htm)
- [Airbus starts the development of IRIS² satellites on behalf of Eutelsat (Airbus, 10 September 2026)](https://www.airbus.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2026-09-airbus-starts-the-development-of-iris2-satellites-on-behalf-of-eutelsat)
- [Eutelsat expects $11 billion revenue after EU's Starlink rival comes online (Reuters via Global Banking & Finance Review)](https://www.globalbankingandfinance.com/eutelsat-expects-11-billion-revenue-eus-starlink-rival-comes/)
- [OHB to Build 18 MEO Satellites for IRIS² in Nearly €1B Award (Via Satellite, 31 August 2026)](https://www.satellitetoday.com/connectivity/2026/08/31/ohb-to-build-18-meo-satellites-for-iris%c2%b2-in-nearly-e1b-award/)
- [Eutelsat vise plus de 10 milliards d'euros de revenus entre 2032 et 2040 grâce à IRIS² (ABC Bourse)](https://abcbourse.com/marches/eutelsat-vise-plus-de-10-milliards-d-euros-de-revenus-entre-2032-et-2040-grace-a_705214)
- [Eutelsat Communications SA share data (Investing.com)](https://www.investing.com/equities/eutelsat-comm)

Published 29 Oct 2026. Orbit Alpha is information, not investment advice.