Canadian satellite communications company TelesatThe stock went public on Friday at the Nasdaq and brought another pure-play space stock to market.

CNBC spoke with Dan Goldberg, Telesat CEO. He said that “we’re an established operator with an established company, generating significant cash flow today with existing customers, which were always very forward-thinking about the market’s future,” Telesat CEO Dan Goldberg stated.

Telesat shares were priced at $41.52; they surged up to 16% during early trading before losing most of their gains and remaining largely unchanged.

The listing came following an exchange with Telesat’s shareholders, with the company effectively taking the place of formerly public Loral Space & Communications. Telesat was owned by Loral and Canadian pension funds PSP. They held 64% and 36%, respectively, before the transaction.

“We didn’t issue any new equity at this point – this was really just about rationalizing the ownership structure,” Goldberg said. “It’s cleaner.”

Telesat is Telesat’s core growth initiative.he low Earth orbit broadband satellite network it’s building, called Lightspeed. Unlike the consumer focus of SpaceX’s Starlink constellation, Telesat plans to use its 298 Lightspeed satellites to provide high-speed fiber-like internet to business-to-business, or enterprise, customers around the world.

Goldberg stressed that lightspeed requires capital investment, and the company expects it to run $5 billion.

Telesat has secured more than $3Billion in Lightspeed financing so far. This includes a $1.1B investment by the Canadian government. Goldberg stated that the company would raise additional funding through export credit agencies and Telesat was “in the process” of concluding those negotiations.

Goldberg explained that the satellite was launched in 2018 as an experiment to test technology.

Telesat contracted Thales Alenia Space (French-Italian aerospace hardware manufacturer) to make the satellites. Although the company has not set a date yet for Lightspeed’s first launch, Goldberg noted that Thales Alenia Space had some supply chain problems that led to delays.