Eutelsat Communications reports revenues for the Third Quarter and Nine Months ended 31 March 2021.
Rodolphe Belmer, Chief Executive Officer of Eutelsat Communications, said: “This Quarter has seen some important operational milestones, notably the outcome of the Spring renewal campaign with the US administration well above historical average, while the increase in our backlog reflects our important recent commercial wins. Most notably, we are now seeing real momentum in our Fixed Broadband ramp-up with EUTELSAT KONNECT now at full coverage, enabling us to make tangible progress in Western Europe with retail operations extended to new territories and gross additions gaining pace.
Distribution has also been strengthened in Africa, notably with a partnership with Facebook to roll out Express Wi-Fi hotspots across our African footprint. The outturn of our Third Quarter revenues performance is fully in line with our expectations and enables us once again to raise the bottom end of our objective range for the year as a whole, as well as to reconfirm all other elements of our financial guidance. From a strategic perspective, recent weeks have been marked by our entry into the LEO space through our investment in OneWeb, which represents a compelling entry point to address the considerable LEO opportunity as well as an additional growth engine for the Group’s connectivity activities”.
Highlights
Favourable outcome of the Spring renewal campaign with the US administration with a record-high 95% renewal rate, well above historical average.
€4.5bn backlog up 6% year-on-year and representing 3.5 years of revenues.
Continued progress in our Fixed Broadband rollout:
KONNECT satellite providing high-bandwidth coverage of Western Europe and sub-Saharan Africa with full coverage now available.
Progress in Western Europe:
Retail operations extended to new territories with gross additions gaining pace;
Ongoing wholesale discussions with third-party operators;
Closing of the disposal of our stake in Eurobroadband Infrastructure (EBI) completing the reorganization of our distribution.
Strengthening distribution in Africa:
Wholesale agreement with Vox in South Africa;
Testing of wholesale distribution with Orange in DRC;
Partnership with Facebook to roll out Express Wi-Fi hotspots across our African footprint.
Nine Month Operating Verticals revenues performance enabling us to further raise our objective for the Full Year to between €1,200 million and €1,220 million (versus between €1,190 million and €1,220 million previously). All other financial objectives for current and next fiscal year confirmed.
Eutelsat has signed an agreement to become a leading shareholder of OneWeb alongside the UK Government and Bharti Global, securing a compelling entry point to the considerable LEO opportunity.