Red Electra unveils Hispasat’s numbers
July 31, 2020
By Chris Forrester
Red Eléctrica Corporación bought Madrid-based satellite operator Hispasat from infrastructure company Abertis in February 2019.
The price for the acquisition of 89.68 per cent of Hispasat’s share capital amounted to €933 million. On October 3th 2019 payment was made for the transaction and the Red Eléctrica Group took control of Hispasat.
Hispasat latest numbers show it generated €79.2 million ($93.4 million) from January through June, contributing to Red Eléctrica’s total revenue of €978 million.
Red Eléctrica said its EBITDA, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, was down 1.7 per cent year-over-year to €766.2 million due in part to its October acquisition of Hispasat.
Red Eléctrica also launched a “voluntary departure plan” for employees this year as personnel expenses grew 13.6 per cent from 2019, mainly from acquiring Hispasat. Red Electrica Chief Executive Roberto Garcia Merio told analysts that the decline in the Brazilian Real as well as the impact of Covid-19 would impact this year’s revenues but that it was guiding for €130 million in EBITDA for the year.
Hispasat has a major satellite on order, Amazonas Nexus from Thales Alenia Space, which will cost some €250 million to build, launch and insure. Amazonas Nexus will be positioned at 61 degrees West and pre-orders for capacity are already at 30 per cent of the total available with in-flight supplier Gogo one of the new customers.