Eutelsat gains EBITDA margin of 76.7 percent

Eutelsat reported revenue of €1,477.9 million (–3.3 percent), EBITDA of €1,133.6 million (–2.7 percent) with EBITDA margin of 76.7 percent (+0.5 pts) and net income of €351.8 million (+0.9 percent) in FY 2016-17.

Despite lower revenues, Eutelsat achieved EBITDA margin of 76.7 percent compared to 76.2 percent last year, reflecting the benefits of cost-savings measures, a lower level of bad debt and the positive impact on margin of the disposal of Wins/DHI.
Eutelsat has reduced Capex (capital expenditure) by €100 million to €414.4 million in FY 2016-17 compared to €514.4 million a year earlier, showing the first results of the ‘design-to-cost’ approach and a reduction in on-ground Capex.

“Our performance on free cash flow generation has enabled us to reduce net debt to below 3.3x EBITDA. The execution of LEAP cost-savings plan will help us deliver an EBITDA margin above 76 percent in FY 2017-18, and we are raising our target for FY 2018-19 and beyond to above 77 percent,” said Rodolphe Belmer, CEO of Eutelsat Communications.

Eutelsat generated revenue of €908.0 million (–3.3 percent) from Video Applications, €168.1 million (–14 percent) from Fixed Data, €176.1 million (–4.1 percent) from Government Services, €96.2 million (+18.4 percent) from Fixed Broadband and €74.6 million (+22.5 percent) from Mobile Connectivity in FY 2016-17.

Eutelsat said the total number of channels broadcast by Eutelsat satellites stood at 6,630 (+288 year-on-year). High Definition penetration continued to increase, representing 17.2 percent of channels compared to 13.6 percent a year earlier, or a total of 1,142channels, versus 863 a year earlier (+279).