SES CEO Adel Al-Saleh. Photo: SES

Last week, SES closed one of the biggest deals in the history of the satellite sector when it completed its acquisition of Intelsat. The deal creates a multi-orbit giant with a huge collection of assets in GEO and MEO.

Via Satellite caught up with SES CEO Adel Al-Saleh about what happens next for the company, plans for a new brand launch, and SES’s investment plans as a combined company to compete with the other key global players going forward.

This is Part One of the interview — Read Part Two here

VIA SATELLITE: Congratulations on closing the acquisition. How does it feel and how important is this moment in SES’s history?

Al-Saleh: We have been working on completing the transaction for the last 14.5 months and completed it ahead of schedule, largely due to the team’s immense effort. Naturally, this moment feels exciting. We aren’t just writing a new chapter in a book. We are writing a new story together — it is the beginning of something very special that we will build as one team and doesn’t happen by itself. We just had our first global all hands meeting, with nearly everyone from both companies dialing in. It was quite packed and there was a lot of excitement. Together with other SES colleagues, we were at the Intelsat building at Tysons, and the legacy Intelsat folks in Luxembourg went to our headquarter in Betzdorf. Where we had two offices in the same locations, we made sure to have colleagues go to one of the offices for celebrations. It was great to see everyone dialed in.

VIA SATELLITE: This is the combination of two of the biggest and well-known companies and brands in our industry. What are your objectives for the combined company for the first year?

Al-Saleh: The first and most important objective is to create an integrated new company. This is not about legacy SES or legacy Intelsat. This is about creating a new SES where we are an integrated company with clear purpose, vision, mission, and fantastic culture, based on our new company values. Our number one priority within the next 12 months is to create a leading space solutions company that is delivering on the commitments we have given to our shareholders and the market and bringing some exciting innovations to the world.

VIA SATELLITE: When we spoke before, we talked about leveraging the Intelsat brand. Do you have any further thoughts on what you are going to do with the Intelsat brand over the next 12 to 24 months?

Al-Saleh: First, both companies boast an incredible history. Intelsat has been around for over 60 years. SES has been around 40 years. Combined, that’s over 100 years of experience. We don’t want to forget those histories. As a company, we do not want to forget about what Intelsat has done, and we don’t want to forget SES’s history. Going forward, this is a new company. We will unveil a new brand in September. While the name will remain SES, we have incorporated the best of both companies to create a new persona and color scheme. We are very excited about that. We need to get our folks on board. As I said, the name will be SES, but the brand will be different, with elements of Intelsat integrated into it.

VIA SATELLITE: So, just the one brand? The Intelsat brand will end?

Al-Saleh: The Intelsat brand will gradually be phased out. However, we will always remember our history and the Intelsat brand is a part of that. The SES name will stay, and the brand will change.

VIA SATELLITE: Since we last spoke, we have seen a spike in defense spending with NATO nations committing to spend more on defense related to GDP. Would it be fair to say that defense is now the number one target market for the new SES? 

Al-Saleh: Government, which includes defense, has always been one of our most critical verticals. It is likely the most secure and relevant vertical for satellite technologies, and its importance continues to grow. The combined company is projected to generate $1 billion in government revenue. It is very well-balanced and anchored on both sides of the Atlantic. On the other hand, our media business remains important, bringing in $1.5 billion in revenue. It continues to generate substantial cash flow, and we aim to slow the decline. These two industries are super critical, but when it comes to growth and relevance, government is very, very important.

VIA SATELLITE: Given what we are seeing politically and the shift towards sovereign space, and even Europe talking about relying less on U.S. technology going forward, do you think there have been shifts in the market for SES?

Al-Saleh: I wouldn’t call them shifts. Our big markets remain where they are. Europe is a massive market for us, not only defense but in civil. The U.S. is also a huge market for us, government and non-government. All these geopolitical dynamics create challenges for us because we are a global company. We move talents across the globe, we move equipment across the globe, and we leverage technologies from many different places. We are not the only ones. If you talk to Boeing, Thales, Airbus, they will tell you that their supply chains are global. There are no Europe only, or U.S. only technologies.

Our O3b mPOWER satellites, although built by Boeing in the U.S. use technologies from Europe. These geopolitical pressure points disrupt the global supply chain, necessitating adjustments on our part. So, I see in the future the need to have multiple supply chain structures, one that may be serving North America or the U.S., and one that is serving Europe. As a global company, we are not willing to give up these markets. Both Europe and North America are vital to us, and we invest significantly in both regions. While this approach may introduce inefficiencies, we are determined to protect and compete hard in these markets.

VIA SATELLITE: How does IRIS² fit into your investment plans?

Al-Saleh: IRIS² is the European Union’s answer to creating a secure, sovereign, European constellation that will enhance secure satellite connectivity and support Europe’s digital infrastructure. As a leading consortium member, we have stated that we can design, own and operate 18 MEO satellites which will be part of IRIS². However, we don’t stop there. We plan to use the MEO satellites committed to IRIS² as a launchpad for the next generation of our MEO network capabilities. The whole idea is to use IRIS² to develop and innovate the technologies to be the next generation of our capabilities. It is very important for our future progress.

VIA SATELLITE: What will be the balance in terms of investing in GEO/MEO over the next two to three years? Will most of the investments be in MEO?

Al-Saleh: We are currently in a fortunate position. We operate about 90 GEO satellites today with incredible capabilities spread around the world. Our satellites operate in different bands, frequencies, orbital positions. We also have new software-defined satellites that we are launching between 2026 and 2028. Intelsat had four and SES has two. That is huge. These satellites are very flexible and programmable, capable of performing multi missions, and can be repositioned as needed. We are in this privileged position that in the foreseeable future, for the next four to five years, we have our GEO strategy and fleet quite well articulated and locked up.

You will also see more investment in government-specific satellites that we will be announcing going forward. But the bulk of the new investments is going to focus on expanding our MEO capabilities. This includes integrating our networks and ground infrastructure. In terms of investment allocation, I would say 50% of our investments will be targeted towards building our next generation MEO constellations, and the rest will be spent between maintenance of our fleets, our ground infrastructure, as well as certain GEO investments.

VIA SATELLITE: Will LEO just be done through partnerships? 

Al-Saleh: Yes, our approach to LEO will primarily be through strategic partnerships. We may undertake small LEO projects, where we may own the satellites for something very specific such as quantum key distribution (QKD). That is something we are leading in Europe. We will evaluate the feasibility of launching a small LEO constellation for such initiatives. But the bulk of our focus on LEO is on partnerships. With IRIS², we have access to IRIS² LEO. We are inheriting also partnerships that Intelsat has built with OneWeb and Starlink and others. We have good access to LEO. We don’t believe we need to own the LEO constellation, except for the things I just described.

VIA SATELLITE: You mentioned owning LEO satellites in small projects. What is the timeline for that to happen?

Al-Saleh: We are in the middle of finalizing a very important QKD project sponsored by the European Space Agency to launch that first satellite capable of QKD in a LEO orbit within the next 18 to 24 months. Once we achieve this milestone and have a demo satellite in operation, we will explore ways to expand the project. Additionally, there are other projects that the team is working on in terms of space awareness requirements that our customers are asking us to explore. That could mean launching a small number of LEO satellites, but these are very targeted and focused missions rather than building a scaled, global constellation.

VIA SATELLITE: What kind of level of restructuring will take place now that the acquisition has closed? Can you give any insight into the plans here?

Al-Saleh: The underpinning value creation of this acquisition are the synergies. This is equal to 2.4 billion euros of net present value of future cashflows that we will generate from these synergies. That translates to about 370 million euros of annual run rate of synergies. These are big numbers. Our goals are very clear. We want to execute on this quickly. Our target is to achieve 70% of these synergies by the end of year three after the transaction closes. The other 30% involves streamlining our fleet, our ground infrastructure, our networks. We will do that very carefully to avoid disrupting our networks, which our customers rely on. If we can do it faster, we will, but the strategy is to get the 70% operationally done within three years, and then the remaining 30% in the following two years.

This is Part One of the interview — Read Part Two here