ORBCOMM pulls in new financing, replaces all publicly-traded debt

ORBCOMM, a leading provider of ELDs and visibility solutions, has made a change in its capital structure again. As a result of the restructuring, S&P Global Ratings has withdrawn its ratings on ORBCOMM. S&P had a B- rating on ORBCOMM and a negative outlook at the time of the withdrawal.

B- is six notches below the cutoff between investment grade and non-investment grade debt at S&P Global Ratings. A negative outlook means conditions are in place for a potential downgrade in the rating though a negative or positive rating can stay in place for months or years without any change actually taking place.

ORBCOMM did not respond to email requests from FreightWaves for further comment. ORBCOMM was a publicly-traded company when it was acquired in 2021 by GI Partners, a private equity company. In its prepared statement announcing the refinancing, ORBCOMM said the debt package totaled $460 million.

It identified three companies as having parts of the refinancing: Carlyle, the private credit group of Bain Credit, and Morgan Stanley Private Credit.

“The financing package refinances ORBCOMM”s existing debt facilities and includes committed, undrawn capital capacity through a delayed draw term loan facility and a revolving credit facility, providing ORBCOMM with committed capital and flexibility,” the company said in a prepared statement.

“The transaction reflects strong support from leading institutional investors and underscores confidence in ORBCOMM’s market position, strategic direction and long-term growth opportunity.”

According to the statement, the financing package refinances existing ORBCOMM debt “and includes committed undrawn capital capacity through a delayed draw term loan facility and a revolving credit facility, providing ORBCOMM with committed capital and flexibility.” The move came just about a year after another change in ORBCOMM’s capital structure.

In April 2025, a different division of S&P Global than the Ratings group, its Market Intelligence unit, took a stake in ORBCOMM. The size of the stake was not disclosed. At the same time, S&P Global acquired the Automatic Identification System (AIS) data services business of ORBCOMM. Debt has long been something of a burden at ORBCOMM.

ORBCOMM’S rating at S&P Global (NYSE: SPGI) was cut in July 2022 to B- from B on what the company said were concerns about revenue, EBITDA margins and the company’s credit metrics, which “have lagged our expectations.” The move to CreditWatch negative at S&P Global came in November 2022.

ORBCOMM was taken off CreditWatch in December of that year after what S&P said was a “capital infusion” from GI Partners, “resolving a near-term cash shortfall and likely bridging its path to positive free operating cash flow in 2023.” However, the outlook remained negative.

That negative outlook was still in place when S&P Global withdrew its ratings in the wake of the new refinancing. As of Wednesday morning, Moody’s (NYSE: MCO) had not made a change in its rating of ORBCOMM. In March 2025, Moody’s assigned a corporate family debt rating of Caa1 to ORBCOMM.

On an equivalency basis to S&P Global’s ratings, that is one notch less than the B- that S&P withdrew. At the time, Moody’s said of ORBCOMM that its debt/EBITDA ratio was an eye-popping 10X “due to the company’s limited ability to convert strong order wins into revenue as well as pressure on EBITDA from higher costs.”

It also said ORBCOMM’s revenue in 2024 was about $310 million.

But in its positive comments about ORBCOMM, Moody’s said at the time that it benefited from “good market positions because its offerings are embedded in customers’ processes and are complimented with competitive pricing; positive long term growth prospects as a large number of remote and mobile assets have not been penetrated with connectivity; good customer diversification; and a private owner that has been supportive with liquidity injections.”

In a more recent update to its credit analysis in February, Moody’s said of ORBCOMM that it is “constrained by: (1) debt/EBITDA that has remained above 10x (including holdco debt) due to the company’s limited ability to convert strong order wins into service revenue while higher costs weigh on EBITDA.”

It also said revenue this year likely dropped below $300 million. More articles by John Kingston Motus steps up: what carriers need to know about new FMCSA system After CBS report, C. H.

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