Astroscale Holdings is starting to turn project work into recognised revenue, but the year to April still looked more like a build-out phase than a clean turn to profitability. The orbital-services company lifted its company-defined project revenue, which adds government subsidy income to IFRS revenue, to ¥11.51bn, up 89.0% from a year earlier. IFRS revenue rose 141.8% to ¥5.94bn. Operating loss narrowed to ¥9.98bn from ¥18.76bn, while net loss shrank to ¥6.70bn from ¥21.55bn.
| Metric | Year to April 2026 actual | Year to April 2027 outlook |
|---|---|---|
| Project revenue | ¥11,506m | ¥12,500m to ¥17,000m |
| IFRS revenue | ¥5,940m | ¥7,000m to ¥9,000m |
| Operating loss | ¥9,975m loss | ¥9,900m to ¥9,000m loss |
| Net loss | ¥6,697m loss | ¥10,600m to ¥9,600m loss |
The operating picture did improve, but not in a neat straight line. Astroscale’s presentation showed gross profit edging into positive territory at ¥19m after a ¥3.88bn gross loss a year earlier, and said operating loss improved partly because manufacturing costs for the LEXI-P life-extension satellite began to be capitalised rather than fully expensed through research and development. But currency also did some heavy lifting. A separate disclosure showed a full-year foreign-exchange gain of ¥3.65bn, mainly from revaluing foreign-currency cash, deposits and loans to subsidiaries at year-end rates.
That helps explain why the year ending April 2027 is still guided to stay in the red. Astroscale forecasts project revenue of ¥12.5bn to ¥17.0bn and IFRS revenue of ¥7.0bn to ¥9.0bn, but still expects an operating loss of ¥9.0bn to ¥9.9bn and a net loss of ¥9.6bn to ¥10.6bn. The company says the range reflects uncertainty over the timing and progress of signed and selected projects, and that new business not yet won or selected is excluded even from the upper end. Order backlog, which combines signed backlog and selected projects, stood at ¥37.94bn at end-April, down 14.6% from a year earlier.
The cash line shows why that caution matters. Cash and cash equivalents fell to ¥10.02bn at end-April from ¥21.30bn a year earlier. Operating activities used ¥12.49bn and investing activities another ¥6.93bn, partly offset by ¥7.24bn of financing inflow. The company says the investment outflow was driven mainly by purchases of property, plant and equipment and intangible assets, while financing inflow came chiefly from share issuance. Astroscale is growing faster, but it is still paying heavily for the next stage.