SES is in the process of seeking to refinance a portion of its existing debt and is currently looking into a number of different options to do so.
Speaking at SES’ full year 2012 results conference call, chief financial officer Andrew Brown told…
SES is in the process of seeking to refinance a portion of its existing debt and is currently looking into a number of different options to do so.
Speaking at SES’ full year 2012 results conference call, chief financial officer Andrew Brown told SatelliteFinance that the satellite operator hoped to complete something in the first half of 2013.
SES has approximately US$1.04bn worth of debt facilities due to mature this year. These comprise €500m (US$660m) of 4.375% fixed rate notes due on 21 October that were issued as part of an €800m dual-tranche offering in 2006, a US$343m series A 5.29% term loan and a £24m (US$37) 5.63% series D term loan that both mature in September and were sold via a US private placement in 2007.
The company only has once piece of debt due in 2014, a €650m 4.875% senior unsecured bond that matures in July.
Defies German analogue switch-off to report strong growth
In its annual results, SES reported a steady rise in both year-on-year revenue and EBITDA. FY2012 revenues were up 5.5% to €1.828bn, while EBITDA rose by 5.6% to €1.347bn giving the company an EBITDA margin of 73.7% and an infrastructure margin, less its services segment, of 83.5%. Backlog is now at an all-time high of EUR €7.5bn.
SES pointed out the robustness of the figures given the impact of the German analogue switch-off, which took €108m out of its 2012 revenue line and was primarily responsible for a 55-transponder reduction. That loss, which also included the 3 transponders on AMC-16 that were affected by the solar array circuit failures and the end of cable contracts at 23.5E, was offset by the commercialisation of 55 new transponders.
The company has four new satellites dues to be launched this year in SES-6, SES-8, Astra-2E and Astra-5B, the first three of which could all be launched in June included SES-8 on SpaceX’s first geostationary commercial launch. These will provide a total of 103 incremental transponders.
Overall, SES reiterated its guidance for the three year period 2012-2014 with revenue and EBITDA CAGR of 4.5%.
McCarthy the new SES CFO as Browne moves to O3b
Meanwhile, just two weeks after its peer Eutelsat revealed the impending departure of its CFO Catherine Guillouard, SES has announced that its incumbent chief financial officer Andrew Browne is to leave his position and take over as the CFO of O3b Networks.
Browne will be replaced by Padraig McCarthy, an SES veteran who has been with the company since 1995 and was most recently senior vice president financial operations & business support at SES, following the integration of SES Astra and SES World Skies into SES. Prior to that he was CFO of SES Astra.
McCarthy will take up his new position 4 April 2013, the day of the company’s annual general meeting.
