SES Turns in Strong Third Quarter

FSS satellite operator SES’s 2012 third-quarter earnings beat market forecasts backed by strong demand for digital and HDTV, which offset losses from Germany’s analog service switch-off, according to the company’s latest financial results issued Nov. 9.
   SES quarterly revenue rose 8.7 percent in the third quarter compared to the same period last year, reaching 467.7 million euros ($595.2 million). The operator’s core profit also rose 8.4 percent from a year earlier to 346.9 million euros ($441.8 million).
   SES reaffirmed its full-year forecast that revenues would grow approximately 2 percent and core profit by 2.5 percent this year, though the operator admitted that its 2012 growth rates are lower than in 2011 due to the delayed launch of a satellite and the switch-off of analogue television in Germany.
   “The financial results for the first nine months of 2012 are in line with our expectations,” SES President and CEO Romain Bausch said in a statement. “Despite the impact of the end of analogue TV broadcasting in Germany at the end of April, strong underlying growth has resulted in revenue growth of 1.6 percent. Excluding the German analogue impact, revenue growth was 7.5 percent … New business and renewals have further increased our backlog of future contracted revenue to an all-time high of 7.2 billion euros ($9.15 billion), underlining the confidence and trust that our customers place in us. Once again, SES has demonstrated the resilience of the satellite sector in the economic downturn.”