Mixed results for Intelsat
November 5, 2021
By Chris Forrester
Intelsat’s Q3 results again showed the satellite operator – still struggling to exit its Chapter 11 bankruptcy – under considerable pressure. It suffered another net loss, this time of $145.7 million (€126.2m) on revenues for the three months of $526.1 million.
However, there was one definite highlight in that its Network Services division (and 46 per cent of Intelsat’s total revenues) grew by 43 per cent compared with the same quarter last year. This growth was helped considerably by revenue from its ‘aero’ division (the in-flight passenger side of the Gogo business which it bought in 2020).
But its Media division revenues (34 per cent of the total) suffered badly and fell 11 percent to $181.1 million.
“The decline in media was primarily driven by a planned service migration by a specific customer from Intelsat’s network to the customer’s own network assets. Other factors impacting revenue were terminations and non-renewals reflecting industry trends. The declines in revenue were slightly offset by new business expansion,” said Intelsat.
Its usually reliable Government business (18 per cent of total) also tumbled, by 12 per cent to $95 million.
Intelsat’s average fill rate as of September 30th 2021 on its approximately 1,620 36 MHz station-kept widebeam transponders was 74 per cent, similar to our average fill rate at June 30th 2021. In addition, as of September 30th the fleet included approximately 1,224 36 MHz equivalent transponders which is consistent with the prior quarter.
Backlog fell by $300 million during the three months (compared to the position at June 30th this year) to $5.7 billion.
Intelsat is also having to cope with its bankruptcy and reconstruction costs which were $98.3 million of which $36.4 million were for “professional fees”.