Healthy Q3 from SES
November 3, 2022
By Chris Forrester
SES has reported its 3- and 9-months financials saying that for the year to September 30th, its overall revenues grew 6.1 per cent (y-o-y) to €1.4 billion and a net profit for the 9-months to €277 million (up 23.2 per cent y-o-y). SES guidance for its 12-months trading revenues of €1,750 million -€1,810 million and €1,030-1,070 million in Adjusted EBITDA and beating consensus.
CEO Steve Collar said that SES was “fully on track to deliver on our 2022 outlook, to capture significant value from US C-band, and to position SES for profitable long-term growth through the deployment of our state-of-the-art multi-orbit assets and architecture.”
This current Q4 will see further C-band benefits for SES in the shape of extra clearing of capacity for US cellular operator Verizon which should generate around $155 million (and an extra $15 million due in Q1/2023).
Collar continued: “Our Networks business is up 2.7 per cent year-on-year primarily driven by ongoing success in Cruise and Aviation. SES-17 is now contributing to growth across the Americas with 13 new deals signed in 8 different geographies, while Thales InFlyt Experience continues to transition aircraft successfully. In Government, we have completed the acquisition of DRS GES more quickly than expected and integration with our existing US Government business is well underway. The combined SES Government Solutions business now boasts scale and an expanded value proposition to our Government end-users just as we launch significant new assets in SES-17 and O3b mPOWER.”
He added that the first of the new batch of O3b/mPOWER satellites will happen on December 15th, with two additional launches during Q1 2023.
“With the successful launches of our first three C-Band satellites, the second phase of clearing is de-risked and therefore we have clear line of sight to $3 billion in accelerated clearing payments due at the end of 2023,” Collar stated.
At September 30th 2022, SES delivers around 8,000 total TV channels to 366 million TV homes around the world, including around 3,100 High Definition TV channels. 73 per cent of total TV channels are broadcast in MPEG-4 with an additional 6 per cent broadcast in HEVC.
Contract backlog at September 30th 2022, was €5.1 billion (€6.4 billion gross backlog including backlog with contractual break clauses), including DRS GES contract backlog of €0.1 billion (€0.8 billion gross backlog).