SES posted solid performance for the first three months ending 31 March 2022, delivering revenue of €448 million and adjusted EBITDA of €274 million.
The company’s networks underlying revenue was relatively flat compared to the first quarter of 2021, at €186 million, with 9.9% growth in mobility. Rapid US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 led to lower government revenue, with new wins expected to contribute positively to future revenue. Fixed data declined by 2.4%, with revenue expansion in Asia, Latin America, and the cloud segment are not yet offsetting a lower contribution from the Pacific region.
At 31 March 2022, SES delivers 8,164 total TV channels to 366 million TV homes around the world, including 3,054 High Definition TV channels. Over 70% of total TV channels are broadcast in MPEG-4 with an additional 5% broadcast in HEVC.
The company’s 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. A continued flow of customers transitioned from SD to HD in the quarter and achieved year-on-year growth of HD+ in Germany.
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.
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% 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.”
