Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on March 6, 2025
3 min readLast updated: January 25, 2026
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Eutelsat shares soared 650% due to retail traders' influence, echoing the Gamestop effect. Speculation about replacing Starlink in Ukraine fueled the surge.
By Danilo Masoni and Gianluca Lo Nostro
MILAN (Reuters) - Shares in Franco-British satellite operator Eutelsat rose on Thursday, bringing gains over four days to near 650% in a rally that bears the hallmarks of retail traders amplifying moves on a highly shorted stock.
Suggestions the company could replace Elon Musk's Starlink in providing internet access to war-torn Ukraine have fuelled a turnaround in sentiment this week for a stock that had been languishing at record lows.
After a six-fold increase in the previous three sessions, its shares rose another 18% on Thursday, valuing it over 4 billion euros ($4.3 billion) before retreating slightly. By 1019 GMT, they were down 12% in a fourth day of heavy trading volumes.
"This is a classic short squeeze of relatively unheard-of proportions, but to be fair, proportionate to the tectonic shifts we see in global geopolitics since the election of Trump," Bernstein analyst Aleksander Peterc said.
The rally started after Friday's public row between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and U.S. President Donald Trump, after which Washington paused military aid to Ukraine.
Kepler Cheuvreux said leveraged bets by individual investors might have amplified the swings, triggering huge short covering and creating a "French version of the Gamestop effect".
Video game retailer Gamestop was at the centre of 2021's so-called "meme stock" rally on Wall Street, when stock influencer Keith Gill's bullish bets sparked a trading frenzy among mom-and-pop investors.
The French broker noted intense discussion on Boursorama's Retail forum in France. The frenzy also seemed to catch individual investors elsewhere in Europe.
On Germany's Tradegate, a popular venue for retail traders, Eutelsat has been one of the most executed orders this week. On Thursday, it ranked first ahead of defence stocks Rheinmetall and Hensoldt.
"Eutelsat is a stock that retail traders like," said Stephane Ekolo, equity strategist at TFS Derivatives in London. "Hedge funds were short that stock and we are witnessing a short squeeze carnage."
Eutelsat declined to comment on its share price performance.
In January, Moody's cut Eutelsat's rating further into junk territory, citing underperformance of its OneWeb satellites and pressure on cash flow given significant investment needs.
"The share price reflects a hope that Europe is going to deliver more support to Eutelsat, none of the fundamental economics that had led its share price to become so depressed have dissipated," said Hamish Low at Enders Analysis.
The company is in talks with the European Union to supply additional internet access to Ukraine.
Adding another potentially bullish note is Eutelsat ranking among the companies also currently in talks with the Italian government about providing a system for secure satellite communications, two sources close to the matter have told Reuters.
($1 = 0.9267 euros)
(This story has been refiled to add a missing quotation mark in the headline)
(Reporting by Danilo Masoni in Milan and Gianluca Lo Nostro; Editing by Amanda Cooper)
Eutelsat's shares surged nearly 650% due to suggestions that the company could replace Elon Musk's Starlink in providing internet access to Ukraine, combined with retail traders amplifying the stock's movements.
A short squeeze occurs when a heavily shorted stock's price rises sharply, forcing short sellers to buy shares to cover their positions. Eutelsat experienced a classic short squeeze, driven by retail traders' actions.
Retail traders, particularly active on platforms like Boursorama and Tradegate, significantly influenced Eutelsat's stock movements, creating a frenzy reminiscent of the Gamestop effect.
Analysts express that while the recent stock price reflects optimism about potential support from Europe, the fundamental issues that led to its previous decline remain unaddressed.
Eutelsat is in talks with the European Union to provide additional internet access to Ukraine and is also discussing secure satellite communications with the Italian government.
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