Luxembourg-based SES and the US’s Intelsat are reportedly in active talks about a possible merger.
According to a report in the Financial Times, quoting three people familiar with the matter, they are discussing the structure of any potential deal against the backdrop of competition from Elon Musk and what is a fast-consolidating satellite industry.
As previously reported by Broadband TV News, the latter includes a prospective merger between Eutelsat and the UK’s OneWeb announced as recently as late last month. Meanwhile, Viasat is in the final stages of acquiring the UK’s Inmarsat in a $7.3 billion deal expected to close later this year.
In its report, the Financial Times says that a merger between SES and Intelsat would create a group with annual revenues of around $4 billion. It adds that SES has a market capitalisation of €3.5 billion and is carrying €3.6 billion in net debt, while Intelsat emerged from bankruptcy earlier this year a debt of $7 billion.
Broadband TV News notes that the report of a possible merger comes along the release of SES’s first half results. These show that the company had revenues of €899 million in H1, or 2.8% more than in the same period last year. Its adjusted EBITDA was €545 million (+0.1%) and adjusted net profit €168 million (+10.6%). However, its underlying video revenue in H1 was, at €501 million, 7% lower than a year earlier.
