Boom for SES following results
Written by Chris Forrester
Sunday, 14 February 2010 11:20
Satellite operator SES, already beginning to celebrate its 25th birthday in a few weeks, had a very good day on Friday Feb 12. The company unveiled an impressive set of 2009 numbers, and the stock price rocketed by 4.1% on the day.
SES’ president & CEO Romain Bausch told analysts that revenues last year rose 4.4% to â,¬1.7bn (â,¬1.63bn in 2008), which helped drive EBITDA up 8.1% over 2008’s position to â,¬1.19bn and an “industry best†infrastructure margin of 82.9%.
Bausch said SES’ all-important contract backlog grew by the best part of â,¬1bn to â,¬6.75bn. Operating profit for the year was up 12.1% to â,¬700m, while the company’s shareholders will see â,¬1.22, an increase of 24.5% on the previous year. The SES fleet, despite growing rapidly, saw transponder utilisation grow from 79% to a very acceptable 82.1%.
This current quarter-year will see 54 new transponders added (on Astra 3B and NSS-12), and another 22 in Q2. Next year promises to be even busier. SES will add another 182 new transponders, over and above the current manifest, which should further boost the revenue picture.
© Rapid TV News 2010