SLI bets on satellite leasing with $200 million commitment to AscendArc

TAMPA, Fla. — Asset-financing specialist SLI plans to buy two small geostationary satellites from two-year-old U.S. startup AscendArc in a deal valued at more than $200 million, betting that operators will increasingly choose to lease spacecraft rather than buy them outright.

“This is pretty different to the way space usually works,” SLI (Space Leasing International) CEO Praveen Vetrivel told SpaceNews, “but this is pretty much how commercial aviation has worked for 40, 50, years.”

Vetrivel said the companies expect to finalize a definitive agreement within about three months, with launches targeted as early as late 2028.

SLI was created in 2023 by Libra Group, a global conglomerate best known for ship leasing but active across aviation, renewable energy, real estate and other sectors. Its first space deal came later that year, with plans to buy 21 ground stations to lease to U.S.-based RBC Signals. 

SLI has since acquired 13 of them, including 10 from Microsoft in March, and expects to buy more ground stations early next year amid rising demand in the Arctic.

“We’ve done mostly ground station transactions up to now,” Vetrivel said in an interview, “but the vision was always to be supporting the space ecosystem and the space industry as a whole — and satellites are certainly a big part of that.”

Why lease?

Vetrivel said leasing could help unlock demand from operators struggling to finance space missions up front.

“We find that a lot of operators are in a Catch 22 where they’re not able to make decisions until very late in the replacement cycle,” he said, “and by then, the build timelines are so long that they’re not able to get the asset they really want.”

Roughly half of the world’s commercial aircraft fleet is leased, he added, giving airlines flexibility while preserving capital for expansion. SLI sees a similar opportunity in geostationary orbit, especially as small GEO specialists such as AscendArc, Astranis, Swissto12 and ReOrbit tout cheaper alternatives to traditional multi-ton satellites.

“We have a direct experience of introducing leasing as a concept to helicopters,” Vetrivel continued. 

“When we first started in 2012, there was no helicopter leasing. We did our first helicopter leasing in 2013, and today that platform is 300-plus helicopters and nearly $3 billion of assets.”

“So we know it’s possible to take tried and tested methods of financial engineering and to copy and paste into newer subdivisions, verticals, industries.”

Three types of demand

SLI sees interest across three categories:

• Speculative capacity — as with AscendArc — where SLI orders satellites ahead of demand, expecting they will be leased before launch.

• Sale-and-leaseback for operators with satellites already in orbit who want to free up capital.

• Lease financing for operators that have ordered satellites but now need funding to complete delivery.

“We don’t think there is a single type of operator who wouldn’t find leasing or financing in this way an interesting option or solution,” Vetrivel said. “I think, in time, everybody will do this.”

San Francisco-based Astranis offers the small satellites it builds on long-term leases, but it integrates spacecraft, ground infrastructure and their operations into a single service model. SLI would instead act as a financial lessor: it owns the satellite but customers operate it themselves, similar to how airlines lease aircraft.

Vetrivel said SLI could also provide ground infrastructure where needed, amid discussions with GEO and non-GEO manufacturers beyond AscendArc.

“There is a complementary nature to this,” he said, “and this will allow us to provide both, if necessary, or support through different transactions.”

Portland, Oregon-based AscendArc recently announced its first commercial sale, a small GEO satellite for South Korea’s KT Sat slated for launch in 2027. The SLI agreement adds a second pathway to market by letting operators lease AscendArc satellites as operating expenditure rather than capital expenditure.

SLI and parent company Libra “bring a long history of success in high value asset leasing, along with the credibility and financial strength needed to complete a deal of this scale,” AscendArc founder and CEO Chris McLain said in a statement. 

“Their backing gives our clients a key financing pathway as they plan their missions.”