SES has returned to growth in the first three months of the year with increases in both revenues and profitability.
Revenues of €540.6 million were up 12.2% over the prior period, delivering a net profit of €128.4 million.
While the satellite operator has a substantial contract backlog of €7.8 billion – including a 6 per cent increase in HD channels – SES can also point to growth in its Enterprise and Mobility sectors.
Karim Michel Sabbagh, President and CEO, commented: “The first quarter 2017 results were fully in line with our expectations. SES returned to growth in Q1 2017 with all of our data-centric markets developing positively, and we remain well placed to deliver sustained growth in all four of our market verticals. The launch of SES-10 on SpaceX’s first ever mission using a flight-proven rocket was a further step towards more efficient launch capabilities, and is yet another demonstration of SES’s strategy of working with our industrial partners to be at the forefront of innovation.”
Last month, the SES board approved a a restructuring of SES’s go-to-market organisation model with the creation of two highly focused communities – SES Video and SES Networks.
Video represented 65 per cent of group revenues, a dip from 71% 12 months ago, with revenues of €353.4 million. A reduction in lower periodic and services accounted for the like for like fall from 12 months ago.
As at 31 March 2017, the SES global fleet carried 7,610 total TV channels, which was 4% higher than 31 March 2016. SES’s HDTV channel count grew by 6%, year-on-year, to 2,496 channels, while the SES satellite network now also carries 22 commercial UHD channels (31 March 2016: 15). 63% of total TV channels are broadcast in MPEG-4 (31 March 2016: 57%).
SES’s satellite fleet is broadcasting video content to 325 million households around the world, which represents an increase of around 8 million households (or 3%) over the prior year.
