SES S.A., a satellite and terrestrial telecommunications network provider, released its consolidated financial statement for the year ended December 31, 2020, on Thursday.

The financial statement released shows the Luxembourg-based telecommunications company made €1.876 billion in revenue and €208 million in adjusted net profit. Compared to the €1.984 billion revenue and €395 million adjusted net profit reported in 2019, SES revenue and net profit dipped by 5.4% and 47.3%, respectively.

The consolidated financial statements include all SES subsidiaries and associates’ financial statements, including that of Africa Limited in Mauritius, West Africa Platform Services Ltd in Ghana, SES ASTRA Africa Proprietary Limited in South Africa, SES Satellite Nigeria Limited in Nigeria, and SES Techcom Afrique S.A. S.U. in Burkina Faso.

Steve Collar, CEO of SES, commented: “2020 was a strong year for SES. The combination of considerable commercial execution and laser focus on controlling discretionary spending ensured that, despite the COVID-19 environment, we protected the bottom line with Adjusted EBITDA in line with our pre-COVID-19 outlook and at the top end of our mid-year outlook. We successfully executed our Simplify & Amplify programme delivering OpEx savings of €50 million from 2022 onwards, while Net Debt and leverage are at a 5-year low on the back of strong cash generation.

2020 was a landmark year for our US C-band initiative, starting with the FCC’s final Report and Order and ending with the record-breaking spectrum auction, crystallising SES opportunity to earn $4 billion in accelerated relocation payments. The clearing is on track, and we expect to meet the December 2021 and December 2023 deadlines.

We secured more than €1.3 billion in customer agreements in the year, including an important long-term commitment with Canal+ covering multiple orbital positions; contract extensions with public and commercial broadcasters across our prime video neighbourhoods; new MEO-GEO-based solutions for the US Government; new Telco and MNO connectivity solutions in Latin America and Asia; and, in return for supporting customers whose businesses are especially affected by COVID-19, secured additional backlog in Cruise and Aero.

We recently announced renewal and extension with Sky, which means that, to date, we have added more than €440 million in contract backlog at our core video neighbourhoods since the end of Q3 2020. 2020 was a year like no other for our employees and customers alike. We moved swiftly and successfully into a remote office environment, protecting customer and satellite operations in the process. I could not be more grateful to SES employees for their resilience and commitment to supporting our customers.

2021 represents a year of unique and significant opportunities for SES. It will see us realise the first $1 billion from C-band repurposing and execute on a strong pipeline of commercial opportunities to further grow, driven by the increasing backlog of now $740 million for SES-17 and O3b mPOWER ahead of launch in the second half of 2021. These assets form the bedrock of our unique, multi-orbit value proposition to serve the strong and expanding demand for data across all our segments. They will drive sustained, profitable growth for SES in the years ahead”.