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(Bloomberg) -- Shares of Eutelsat Communications SA more than tripled this week, the French satellite provider’s biggest ever two-day gain, after European Union politicians pledged to boost defense spending and the US paused aid to Ukraine.
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Eutelsat shares soared as much as 123% on Tuesday to €4.50, and were up 97% at 1:31 p.m. in Paris. The gains followed a 68% increase on Monday.
US President Donald Trump on Monday ordered a halt to all pending military assistance to Ukraine until its leaders demonstrate what he called a good-faith commitment to peace. While many of Ukraine’s Starlink terminals are funded by Europe and won’t be affected by the Trump order, the strained ties between Washington and Kyiv have sparked fears that the service could be disrupted. Starlink owner SpaceX is run by Trump’s close ally, billionaire Elon Musk.
“OneWeb solutions can provide an alternative for certain government and defense applications,” Eutelsat spokesperson Joanna Darlington said in a statement to Bloomberg News, adding that its low-earth orbit services are already used in Ukraine. “We are actively collaborating with European institutions and business partners to enable the swift deployment of additional user terminals.”
Christophe Grudler, a French politician who serves as a member of the European Parliament, wrote in a letter last week that the EU should “take immediate action to assess all possible alternative satellite solutions” for Ukraine instead of Starlink.
Eutelsat operates the second-biggest portfolio of low-earth orbit satellites after Starlink. Starlink has become an essential service for the Ukrainian military in its three-year war with Russia, after much of Ukraine’s infrastructure was destroyed.
The EU will propose extending €150 billion ($158 billion) in loans to boost defense spending, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday, as the bloc seeks to counter decades of underinvestment. Von der Leyen said the package could mobilize nearly €800 billion if governments take full advantage of the new leeway.
Still, OneWeb’s satellite network is less than 1/10th the size of Starlink’s and the company’s shares have struggled. Even with this week’s jump, the stock is still trading below 2022 levels when Eutelsat and OneWeb agreed to combine.