Satellite company SES reported a solid set of first-quarter operating results. The company delivered a strong operational performance in its networks business. Their 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.
Sales at the network division were stable at $197.23 million. The group also reported adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of 274 million euros, up 2.4% from a year earlier, on revenue of 448 million euros.
Moreover, the firm, which broadcasts to more than a billion TV viewers worldwide, confirmed its outlook for EBITDA in the range of 1.03 billion to 1.07 billion euros and revenues between 1.5 billion and 1.81 billion euros.
Commenting on the results, Steve Collar, CEO of SES, said, “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. 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% 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.”
