Advanced Television

SES

SES buys US government solutions business

SES is spending $450 million (€408.8m) to buy DRS Global Enterprise Solutions, a US subsidiary of Italian Leonardo DRS. The transaction, which is expected to be completed during H2/2022 subject to regulatory approvals, the GES business will be combined with SES Government Solutions (SES GS), a wholly owned subsidiary of SES, which SES says will […]

March 22, 2022By Chris Forrester

SES to accelerate US C-band availability

SES used the opening day of the Satellite 2022 show to announce that it has signed a contract with Verizon in the US to expand the giant cellular operator’s access to converted C-band frequencies for 5G use ahead of the FCC’s deadline. The deal means an extra $170 million (€153.7m) in revenues although there are […]

March 21, 2022By Chris Forrester

SES: “Demand for government comms increasing”

SES has told investment analysts that its exposure to Russian or Ukrainian revenues is extremely limited. But it says that the conflict has increased demand for governments for military grade X-band communications has increased in the past couple of weeks. The X-band usage is centred through its Govsat-1 capacity which is part of its SES-16 […]

March 21, 2022

Bank upbeat for SES, Eutelsat

Barclays Bank has issued a note from its equity analysts which favours “defensive stocks” such as SES and Eutelsat. The bank says that the current economic uncertainties mean that its former recommendations for global ad-agencies such as WPP, Omnicom, Interpublic and Publicis are downgraded to ‘Equal Weight’ from ‘Overweight’. The bank says there could be […]

March 18, 2022

SES extends Canal+ service agreement

SES and Canal+ have expanded their partnership with a long-term agreement for uplink services for Canal+’s French pay-TV channel bouquet at 19.2 degrees East. The new agreement includes services delivered from two teleports in Betzdorf, Luxembourg, and starting in 2023, Munich, Germany, underscoring the importance and shared value of delivering superior and uninterrupted viewing experiences […]

March 17, 2022By Chris Forrester

Fitch: BBB for SES, B+ for Intelsat

SES has received a favourable review from Fitch Ratings for its borrowings. Fitch says that SES’s long-term debt is rated at ‘BBB’ and its subordinated borrowings are rated at ‘BB+’. Fitch highlights the options that SES will shortly have from the FCC’s next C-band incentive payments of some $3 billion. Sandeep Jalan, CFO at SES, […]

March 14, 2022

Bank rates SES ‘Buy’, Eutelsat ‘Hold’

A report from investment analysts at Berenberg Bank looks closely at satellite operator SES, and maintains a ‘Buy’ rating although the bank softens its Price Target on the operator’s shares, and lowers its target slightly from €10 to €9.80 (today at €6.92). The bank’s report says that over the next two years SES has three […]

March 9, 2022

Moody’s down rates some SES debt

Moody’s Investors Service credit ratings agency has given a “negative outlook” to certain debt owed by satellite operator SES. Moody’s overall rating is their Baa2 rating on SES SA and SES Global Americas Holdings GP. Moody’s says the outlook for both entities remains negative. “The ratings affirmation reflects the slower reduction in the company’s revenues, […]

March 7, 2022By Chris Forrester

SES vs Intelsat: Tolley statements filed

Lawyers for SES filed an additional motion into the court hearing its lawsuit against Intelsat over the 50/50 division of the FCC’s C-band $9.7 billion ‘incentive payments’. Intelsat’s former CFO David Tolley was deposed twice (on April 15th and October 18th) last year but was not called as a witness during the recent overall hearings […]

March 7, 2022

RT closes US studio

RT America, the US version of Russian-backed news channel RT, is to close its US studios and lay off most of its staff. Its bureaus in New York, Washington, Miami and Los Angeles are affected. Misha Solodovnikov, the general manager of T&R Productions, the company that produces RT America, told staff in an email that […]

March 4, 2022By Chris Forrester