Investors are increasingly concerned about the state of finances at Europe’s two giant satellite operators, SES and Eutelsat, according to a report in the FT. “The cost of buying insurance against France’s Eutelsat and SES of Luxembourg defaulting on their bonds has soared to record highs, as investors fear the two will struggle to repay their […]

The European Investment Bank’s global arm, EIB Global, has signed a €125 million loan agreement with satellite operator SES to fund three satellites of its second-generation medium Earth orbit (MEO) system O3b mPOWER. SES has already launched eight of 13 O3b mPOWER satellites, which operate 8,000 kms away from the Earth, delivering high throughput and […]

Satellite operator SES has bought back €100 million of its perpetual bonds of which €625 million were in issue. SES’s bonds dropped sharply in mid-January after the credit desk at investment bank BNP Paribas published a note recommending investors sell the debt. The BNP Paribas report suggested that competition from new(ish) satellite players such as […]

Investment bank BNP Paribas, in a major study of Europe’s media and media-related activity, has also looked at the wider satellite sector. Analyst Sami Kassab said that satellite operators’ shares had a mixed performance in 2024. That comment might be seen as an understatement. “Incumbent satellite operators (Viasat, Eutelsat, SES, Iridium) have continued to see […]

LuxConnect, based in Bettembourg, Luxembourg, has been awarded one of the IRIS² control centres. IRIS2 is Europe’s mega-constellation of satellites and designed to provide ultra-secure communications for government and military purposes. It is managed by three leading European satellite network operators: SES from Luxembourg, Eutelsat from France, and the Spanish Hispasat. IRIS² control centres are […]

SES, itself busy looking to absorb arch-rival Intelsat which it agreed to acquire last April, perhaps has its eyes on its next expansion step. Rumours – wholly unconfirmed – suggest an investment in AST SpaceMobile could be in the offing. The satellite operator’s Chief Strategy Officer JP Hemingway is already on record as saying that […]

SES is buying rival Intelsat for $3.1 billion (€2.99bn) in a deal announced last April. The purchase had been expected to be completed in the second-half of 2025 once all regulatory hurdles had been overcome. Now, however, SES wants to wrap the agreement by June as it cites “fast-moving industry developments” and competitive threats from […]

IRIS2 is Europe’s massive project to provide a highly-secure multi-orbit satellite constellation which will also compete with Elon Musk’s Starlink and provide safe and secure communications for Europe’s nations and military. The IRIS2 project has been described as ‘Starlink’s big sister’ and a true mega-constellation. But it has a very tight set of deadlines. The […]

For the past few years satellite operator has kept a very trimmed Dividend for shareholders of an annual €0.50 per annum, for each ‘A’ share held by shareholders. This past year this has been split into two separate €0.25 payments made in October 2014 and with the next due in April 2025. However, this low […]

On the heels of the news that that the latest pair of SES O3b/mPOWER satellites were successfully launched comes confirmation that its latest craft, Astra 1P, has been brought into service over Europe and serving 118 million TV homes. Following its successful in-orbit raising and performance testing, Astra 1P will now start serving public and […]