Satellites maker SES beats profit estimates, sees upside to market consolidation
By Dina Kartit and Elena Vardon
(Reuters) – Satellite tv for pc firm SES’s CEO reiterated on Thursday he noticed business consolidation as a great factor for the extremely aggressive market, however wouldn’t touch upon merger rumours after the group posted stronger-than-expected half-year earnings.
The Monetary Instances reported on Thursday SES was in talks to merge with its U.S. rival Intelsat SA, signalling consolidation within the quickly altering and aggressive business.
“We have talked on this name and on analyst calls about business consolidation and the way that’s … from my perspective at the least, a great factor for the business, however we clearly do not touch upon any market rumours or hypothesis,” Chief Govt Steve Collar informed reporters in an earnings name.
“No matter we do, clearly we’ll do in the perfect curiosity of SES shareholders,” he added.
Intelsat didn’t instantly reply to Reuters’ request for remark.
Final week, French rival Eutelsat mentioned it was in talks over a attainable merger with Britain’s OneWeb, which might assist each corporations problem the likes of Elon Musk-owned SpaceX’s Starlink and Amazon.com’s Undertaking Kuiper.
SES reported adjusted core earnings (EBITDA) of 545 million euros ($554 million) for the January-June interval, in opposition to analysts’ common estimate of 539 million in a company-provided ballot.
The Luxembourg-based group mentioned it secured a number of necessary renewals for its core video phase within the first six months of the 12 months, and likewise noticed development in its HD+ and Sports activities and Occasions companies.
Satellite tv for pc gamers, comparable to SES and Eutelsat, have been dealing with challenges as conventional video revenues decline and knowledge turns into the dominant supply of satellite tv for pc business income.
SES’s half-year income was 899 million euros, barely above analysts’ 895-million-euro estimate.
“We’re absolutely on monitor to ship on our full 12 months income and EBITDA outlook,” mentioned Collar in a press release.
($1 = 0.9839 euros)
(Reporting by Dina Kartit and Elena Vardon in Gdansk; enhancing by Milla Nissi)
