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Financially Speaking… SES S.A.

SES Logo SES S.A. has reported the Company’s financial performance for the three months to March 31 , 2009.
  • Reported revenue of EUR 423.9 million, an increase of 8.4 percent over the prior year period
  • Recurring revenue of EUR 423.4 million, an increase of 3.1 percent over the prior year period
  • Reported EBITDA of EUR 308.9 million, an increase of 12.2 percent over the prior year period
    • EBITDA margin of 72.9 percent
    • infrastructure EBITDA margin improved to an industry-leading 84.4 percent
  • Recurring EBITDA of EUR 313.8 million, an increase of 6.0 percent over the prior year period
  • Operating profit of EUR 189.7 million, an increase of 14.7 percent over the prior year period
  • Profit of the group was EUR 121.8 million, an increase of 0.7 percent over the prior year period
  • Net debt / EBITDA stood at 3.06 times at the end of the period
  • Last 12 months weighted EPS rose by 1.0 percent to EUR 0.99
  • Group transponder utilisation at 31 March was 79.6 percent or 880 of 1,105 commercially available transponders
  • After the period end, SES concluded a EUR 2.0 billion syndicated credit facility, thus enhancing SES’ debt maturity profile
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Romain Bausch, President and CEO of SES, commented:

“The evolution of our business during the first quarter of the year is in line with our expectations and business plan, underlining the inherent stability and growth potential of the SES business model. We have made good progress, signing a number of new contracts and notably seeing further growth in HD programming. We brought three satellites into operation in the quarter. With business developing according to plan and with new finance facilities secured, we look forward to reporting further progress as we move through the year.

“The world economic situation continues to be uncertain. Should the recessionary environment last into 2010, it is possible that SES might suffer some negative impact, whether through the reduction of growth initiatives or as a result of customers experiencing difficulties.

However, at this point, SES has experienced no direct negative impact. The majority of our customers have solid businesses and many are still demonstrating healthy growth. Therefore, the outlook for the group at this stage remains positive and the guidance published in February this year remains unchanged.”