SES is growing its Ultra HD portfolio, having gone from no commercial channels to 16, including regional variations, in the year to June 30.
At the same time, it continues to benefit from the transition from SD to HD, with 32.7% of the 7,463 channels it broadcast as of June 30 in the format.
This compared to 30.4% a year earlier and represented a year-on-year growth of 12.1% in the number of HD channels.
Furthermore, as of June 30, 60% of SES’s total TV channels was broadcast in MPEG-4.
Video accounted for 70% of SES’s revenues in H1, compared to 66% in the corresponding period in 2015, and amounted to €655.7 million.
Overall, the company’s revenues in H1 were €856.8 million, down 4.2% as reported in 2015 (-4.8% at constant FX). EBITDA was €699.8 million (-5.4%, -5.8%), and net profit €227.3 million (-€275.4 million).
Commenting on the results, Karim Michel Sabbagh, president and CEO, said: “SES’s first half results were in line with management’s expectations, while the appeal of SES’s differentiated and holistic solutions to major customers has continued to deliver substantial contract backlog and validates SES’s capability-driven strategy.
“SES is well positioned with strong foundations to generate sustainable and long-term growth. SES is globalising the business and developing the strongest, most scalable and flexible solutions across the four market verticals. SES has continued to build market-leading positions in global video and aeronautical connectivity. In government, SES is delivering robust performance with the benefit of new contracts and renewals with the US government, as well as expanding with new global government customers.
“In Enterprise, SES is growing the proportion of revenue from tier one global/regional customers and the provision of value-add managed services and network platforms. Although changing market dynamics result in short-term headwinds for the balance of SES’s Enterprise business, these will be more than offset in the medium to longer term, as SES continues to scale up and complement its global network and capabilities with additional products and solutions. This global network will seamlessly combine our GEO and MEO systems.
“O3b expands SES’s global reach and satellite-enabled solutions, augments SES’s differentiated capabilities in data-centric verticals and enhances SES’s growth profile, including Enterprise. The transaction to move to 100% exceeds SES’s investment hurdle rates and accelerates over €100 million of synergies by 2021. The completion of the equity raising and hybrid bond issue will allow SES to execute this important transaction, while retaining SES’s investment grade status (BBB/Baa2) and commitment to a progressive dividend policy”.
