SES: “Solid start to 2022”
May 5, 2022
By Chris Forrester
SES has reported its Q1 financials on with CEO Steve Collar saying that the company had made a “solid start” to 2022. Its Q1 Video division revenues, however, declined 6.4 per cent to €251 million, despite important client renewals being secured.
Excluding US wholesale, Video was 4.1 per cent lower than Q1 2021 as ‘right-sizing’ of volumes in mature European markets was partially offset by growth in HD+ and Sports & Events.
At March 31st 2022, SES delivers 8,164 total TV channels to 366 million TV homes around the world, including 3,054 HDTV channels. Over 70 per cent of total TV channels are broadcast in MPEG-4 with an additional 5 per cent broadcast in HEVC.
Adjusted Net Profit for SES rose 17 per cent to €88 million including the benefit of lower recurring operating and interest expenses.
“We have continued to see customers transitioning from SD to HD in the quarter and achieved y-o-y growth of HD+ in Germany. Our Networks business (“flat” at $186 million) has performed well, on the back of strong growth in Mobility and an encouraging volume of wins across Government and Fixed Data that support our expected uptick in growth,” said the company’s statement.
Revenue for Q1 was $448 million ($436m same period 2021).
“Looking to our future growth drivers, SES-17 has now reached its orbital location and will begin commercial services from mid-June 2022. O3b mPOWER is also progressing well with an increased launch cadence accommodated within our existing CapEx envelope. Commercial momentum continues to build for these assets with combined gross backlog up 20 per cent y-o-y,” said SES.
SES contract backlog at March 31st 2022 was €5.1 billion (€5.7 billion gross backlog including backlog with contractual break clauses).
Steve Collar, CEO of SES, commented: “We have made a solid start to 2022 with a strong financial performance supporting the delivery of our full year 2022 outlook and further execution on our key strategic goals.”
“Our Video business continues to deliver long-term value for customers as demonstrated by the most recent deal announced with long-term partner Sky UK, valued at around €85 million. We have continued to see customers transitioning from SD to HD in the quarter and achieved year-on-year growth of HD+ in Germany. Our Networks business has performed well, on the back of strong growth in Mobility and an encouraging volume of wins across Government and Fixed Data that support our expected uptick in growth.”
“Looking to our future growth drivers, SES-17 has now reached its orbital location and will begin commercial services from mid-June 2022. O3b mPOWER is also progressing well with an increased launch cadence accommodated within our existing CapEx envelope. Commercial momentum continues to build for these assets with combined gross backlog up 20 per cent year-on-year.”
“We are excited by the pending acquisition of DRS Global Enterprise Solutions, announced in March 2022, doubling our US Government business, and enabling us to serve US government customers with an expanded set of connectivity solutions, leveraging our unique multi-orbit fleet, and in particular the arrival of O3b mPOWER.”
“Finally, we are progressing well towards completing the second phase of US C-band clearing by end-2023 and triggering the remaining accelerated relocation payment of $3 billion (pre-tax), while creating a further $170 million in value for SES through our additional clearing agreement with Verizon.”