SES S.A. (NYSE Euronext Paris and Luxembourg Stock Exchange: SESG) reports financial results for the year ended 31 December 2015.
FY 2015 HIGHLIGHTS
Delivering solid growth in group revenue and profit
– Revenue of EUR 2,014.5 million, up 5.0% (-3.2% at constant FX[1]) over prior year
– EBITDA of EUR 1,494.2 million, up 4.6% (-3.6% at constant FX) over prior year
– EBITDA margin of 74.2% (2014: 74.4%); Infrastructure margin remains strong at 84.0% (2014: 84.4%)
– Profit after tax up 5.0% to EUR 674.0 million
– Net operating cash flow up 17.0% to EUR 1,450.6 million
– Proposed dividend per A-share of EUR 1.30, representing a 10% increase over prior year
Focused strategy delivering strong revenue growth in three of SES’s four market verticals
– Video +2.2% at constant FX; superior HDTV growth of +18.3% vs. the industry (+12.9%)
– Mobility +24.5% at constant FX; Global Eagle Entertainment and KVH doubled existing capacity with SES
– Government +3.3% at constant FX; major U.S. Government hosted payload and global government wins
– Enterprise -19.2% at constant FX; -11.1% excluding AMC-15/AMC-16 renewals and ARSAT migration
Building foundations for sustainable, long-term growth
– Industry’s strongest HD penetration (30.7%) and first in commercial UHD with eight channels
– Creating a world-leading media solutions provider with merger of RR Media with SES Platform Services
– Significant long-term inflight connectivity contracts signed with Gogo and Panasonic
– Expanding Emerging Market capacity by 21% and total fleet capacity by 12%
– Global HTS platform delivering 36 GHz of capacity to support significant growth in data usage
– O3b’s ‘fibre in sky’ MEO constellation growing from 12 to 20 satellites to meet rapidly expanding demand
– Substantial contract backlog of EUR 7.4 billion (2014: EUR 7.3 billion)
Karim Michel Sabbagh, President and CEO, commented: “SES’s on-going globalisation contributed to 5.0% growth in reported revenue. Focus on delivering differentiated solutions generated revenue growth in three of the four market verticals now defining SES’s global business. We also strengthened our Enterprise business. Video grew in developed and emerging markets, supported by SES’s superior growth in HD and being first to add commercial Ultra HD channels. SES expanded long-term commercial relationships across Enterprise and Mobility with major global customers including Global Eagle Entertainment and Airbus Defence and Space, and notably signing two major inflight connectivity agreements early in 2016 with Panasonic and Gogo for new HTS capacity on SES-14 and SES-15. In Government, SES secured two important U.S. Government-funded hosted payload agreements and expanded its global government business, including the LuxGovSat partnership and, most recently, the multi-transponder agreement in Canada.
SES is investing in new capabilities to serve anchor customers in fast-growing opportunities in Global Video, as well as Next Generation Enterprise, Mobility and Government. These important investments, combined with SES’s interest in O3b – which provides unique capabilities for Enterprise, Mobility and Government – are setting the foundations for sustainable growth. SES is committed to maintaining a progressive dividend, and has proposed an increase of 10% for the 2015 dividend.”
OPERATIONAL REVIEW
SES’s differentiated strategy focuses on three key elements:
– Globalisation (building scale to serve rapidly increasing demand for global solutions)
– Verticalisation (focused development of differentiated capabilities in the four market verticals)
– Dematuring (shaping the future user experience, entrenching satellite’s key role in the digital ecosystem)
By delivering differentiated and world-class global satellite-enabled solutions, SES seeks to optimally serve customer requirements in four key market verticals – Video, Enterprise, Mobility and Government. Going forward, SES is changing the basis of reporting operational performance to focus on the four key market verticals, which now define SES’s business and strategy. For reference, an analysis of revenue performance by geographic region can be found in the supplementary information on page 11.
During 2015, SES completed over EUR 1.5 billion of contract renewals and new business, which have contributed to maintaining SES’s substantial and fully protected contract backlog of EUR 7.4 billion as at 31 December 2015 (31 December 2014: EUR 7.3 billion).
