Advanced Television

Eutelsat: “Return to growth” in 2024

February 17, 2023

By Chris Forrester

Eutelsat has unveiled its H1 numbers for its 2022-2023 financial year. There was plenty of good news, despite the headline number which showed its total revenues (like for like) falling 6.1 per cent to €574 million.

These numbers translated into some strong revenue falls. For example, Broadcast revenue fell 6.7 per cent. Data & Professional Video fell 2.5 per cent. But Government Services crashed 20.3 per cent.

Set against these negatives, there was good news. Its Fixed Broadband vertical enjoyed a 17 per cent growth, and Mobile Connectivity saw an impressive 32.7 per cent uplift.

Nilesat was responsible for what Eutelsat described as a “temporary headwind” with the partial renewal of Eutelsat’s capacity contract with the Egyptian operator. Eutelsat phased out the Nilesat impact from mid-October. There was also a negative from the non-renewal of a capacity contract with Turkey’s DigiTurk in mid-November 2022.

Eutelsat’s all-important contracted backlog also fell back from €4.2 billion a year ago to €3.7 billion as at December 31st 2022.

The shift away from its once core ‘cash cow’ revenue from broadcast to connectivity-based services is clear. “Rebalancing of our business towards Connectivity, where demand is booming,” stated Eutelsat.

As to the Full Year (which ends on June 30th) Eutelsat is guiding for revenues of between €1.135 billion to €1.165 billion.

Eutelsat also touched on its upcoming relationship with OneWeb, which it is in the process of merging with. OneWeb has a secured backlog of $800 million as at December 31st, 2022. The deal is expected to close mid-2023 subject to the usual regulatory approvals being in place.

Eva Berneke, Eutelsat CEO, commented: “Eutelsat delivered a solid First Half, with revenues from our Operating Verticals within the range of our Full Year objectives and industry-leading profitability maintained with a 73 per cent EBITDA margin. This financial performance enables us to confirm our standalone outlook for the Full Year 2022-23, and for the outer years. The start of the year has also seen considerable operational success, with the ongoing strong commercial ramp-up of Eutelsat Quantum, and a record number of four satellite launches, providing both service continuity and incremental capacity which will pave the way for our return to growth in FY 2023-24. Elsewhere, OneWeb continues to deliver positive commercial ramp-up, and the proposed deal to combine our two companies is on track for closing in calendar Q2/Q3 2023. In the long term, our new orbital assets as well as the projected combination with OneWeb will unlock significant potential in markets where the demand for connectivity is booming.”

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