SES has included Intelsat’s revenues for the first quarter (and the combined company’s third-quarter) which have been consolidated since July 17th, in reporting the results for the three and nine month periods to September 30th.

Its revenue of €1.74 billion (+19.8 per cent y-o-y) and Adjusted EBITDA of €849 million (+11 per cent y-o-y). Its Networks division growth for the 9 months was impressive at 36.3 per cent y-o-y.

€1.4 billion of new business and contract renewals was signed YTD 2025 – with a total combined gross backlog of €7.1 billion.

Its important O3b mPOWER satellites #9 & #10 successfully launched on July 22nd and are expected to be in service beginning 2026 – boosting O3b mPOWER network capacity and resilience. SES has also collected about c.$87 million (€75.5m) regarding insurance claim for O3b mPOWER satellites 1-4 with additional settlements expected. O3b’s #11, #12,#13 will launch in 2026.

Media revenues were flat, with growth of just 0.7 per cent. SES says: “Media revenue of €686 million (40 percent of total revenue) was stable at +0.7 percent y-o-y, benefiting from fully consolidating Intelsat from 17 July 2025. Underlying declines result from lower revenue in mature markets due to capacity optimisation and the impact of SD channel switch offs as well as the full Q2 and Q3 impact of the Brazilian customer bankruptcy. YTD 2025, the business secured more than €440 million of renewals and new business.”

FY25 combined company financial outlook on a reported basis): Revenue expected to be in the range of €2.6 – 2.7 billion for the full year.

Adel Al-Saleh, CEO of SES, commented: “I am pleased to report our solid nine months 2025 results which include the first quarter for the combined company following the successful close of the Intelsat acquisition on 17 July 2025. The results reflect continued operational strength and demonstrate continued delivery on the strategic execution of the newly combined and expanded SES.”

“The new SES is now a truly global multi-orbit operator with greater scale built for the future, positioning us for long-term growth, strong financial performance, and a more resilient business. We are excited about our potential to shape the future of space solutions and global connectivity. From Day one, we have made significant progress with the integration of the two companies. We have begun to realise synergies across the business, and we expect to deliver on our synergy plan. We are confident in our ability to convert those operational gains into sustained Adjusted FCF and long-term shareholder value,” he added.

SES said its Aviation business expanded with the Intelsat acquisition and is now serving over 3,000 tails. “This business remains a key growth driver, with continued momentum in securing global airline customers, such as American Airlines and, most recently, new carriers in Latin America and Asia Pacific. Our multi-orbit ESA solution, flexible business models, global coverage, low latency, and Ka and Ku band options are enabling airlines to meet rising bandwidth demands, especially with wide WiFi deployments. We now have 16 airlines that have opted for our ESA solution with commitments for over 1,000 aircraft installations. Since closing of the Intelsat transaction, we have won 200 new tails demonstrating the relevance of our aviation solutions.”

SES added that its April 2026 scheduled dividend payment would be “at least” €0.25.

SES share price fell 13.47 per cent in early market trading following the results. Analysts were disappointed by SES’ numbers which missed market expectations. Not helping matters was the US government shutdown which slowed the issuing of new or renewal of important contracts.

However, on the upside, Al-Saleh told analysts that SES was looking closely at the possibility of freeing up – over time – up to 180 MHz of upper C-band capacity. The initial target would be to release 100 MHz for an FCC auction probably during 2026. There’s an FCC meeting on November 20 where the prospects would be discussed and revealed. SES would gain more than 50 per cent of any compensation from an FCC auction of 100 MHz, and near-100 per cent of any capacity over and above the first 100 MHz.

“It is clear that the FCC wants to do more. All the signs suggest that it could be more than 100MHz, and is good news for us and our investors. We are well-positioned with the FCC, and with our customers. We have solutions that means we can keep our customers with any changes. The changes could be accelerated but the FCC will decide. We expect full cost reimbursements from the FCC,” said Al-Saleh.

Al-Saleh revealed a number of key asset achievements in his presentation to analysts, including:

· 60 government organisations are clients
· 10,900 channels now included in the combined portfolio
· 2.3 billion people reached by SES channels
· Its In-Flight services now serve 30 airlines
· Its cruise contracts are with 5 out of 6 major cruise lines
· It is working with 8 out of top 10 mobile operators
· 99 per cent of world’s population covered
· Now has about 150 Teleports in its coverage
· Maritime reaching 14,000 commercial vessels and fishing boats

Al-Saleh also commented on the European-backed IRIS2 mega-constellation scheme where planning was in “full swing”. He had spent November 5th with EC staffers at a meeting and said the IRIS2 project was at the core of the Commission’s strategy. SES was working with its other partners looking at commitments, dates and such like.

As for the FCC C-band auction possibilities, he stressed that SES, as a space company, was well used to having a back-up strategy. Indeed, we back-up the back-up and then back-up again,” he said. “We have [C-band] solutions for our clients.”

He talked about the loss of Intelsat’s IS-33 and praised Intelsat’s engineers for their work in speedily relocating clients. But he explained that despite its back-up plans it wasn’t able to relocate everyone on Intelsat craft. That is changing now but it would take another year or so to complete the transition of those clients back to SES orbital assets.

2026 would bring new capacity (on O3b mPOWER) and cruise lines already wanted more bandwidth. Al-Saleh said that SES was winning more than its fair share of new cruise-line business despite vigorous competition from Starlink.

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Categories: Articles, Broadband, Broadcast, Business, DTH/Satellite, Results, Satellite

Tags: Adel Al-Saleh, Intelsat, O3b mPOWER, SES