Intelsat Q2 down £28m
July 30, 2019
By Chris Forrester
It hasn’t been the best of trading quarters for Intelsat, having suffered an in-orbit failure and the consequent loss of revenue from the craft.
Its Q2 results show revenues of $509 million (€456.4m), down $28 million on the same period last year. The lost satellite (I-29e) meant a $382 million asset impairment charge.
Contracted backlog at June 30th 2019, after adjusting for known reductions to backlog related to the Intelsat 29e satellite failure, was $7.5 billion as compared to $7.9 billion at March 31st 2019. At approximately 3.5 times trailing 12 months revenue (from July 1st 2018 to June 30th 2019), Intelsat’s backlog remains sizable with the company saying the backlog provides a solid foundation for predictable cash flow and investment. Nearly two-thirds of its backlog is related to our longer-term media contracts.
CEO Steve Spengler spoke confidently as regards to the merits and strengths of the company’s C-band restructuring, “specifically, our commitment to the protection of all existing C-band users, and our accountability to clear spectrum within 18 to 36 months of an FCC final order, enabling the US to lead the race to 5G.”
Breaking down the numbers, Intelsat’s Network services revenue was $185 million (down 7 per cent). Media revenue was $223 million (down 5 per cent).
As to the Media-related segment, Intelsat said: “The decline is mainly due to lower volume at the time of renewal for cable distribution services in North America, Latin America and Europe, reduced demand for occasional use services and lower revenue from contribution services in Africa.”
Intelsat’s Government services division also saw a 5 per cent decline.