Government and Aviation Offer Support as SES Builds New Space Initiatives
 
2025 in-line. On a like-for-like basis, SES reported Q4 revenue of €884M (-6% y/y), with connectivity growth (+4% y/y) only partially offsetting media declines (-19% y/y). SES was impacted by the bankruptcy of a Brazilian media customer, while Intelsat continued to face GEO erosion. Full-year revenue reached €3.5B (-4% y/y), was in-line with consensus.
Profitability slips. Q4 AEBITDA fell 21% y/y to €359M with margins down 7 points to 41%, reflecting higher equipment sales, weakness in fixed data (-16% y/y) and third-party capacity payments (IS-33 anomaly). Low margin equipment currently accounts for ~40% of aviation revenue. Full-year AEBITDA was €1.5B (-14% y/y).
Negative operating leverage. Opex rose to 70% of revenue in Q4 for the combined entity vs 52% for standalone last year. Costs are likely to remain elevated near term as mPOWER capacity ramps, before meaningful opex synergies begin to materialize in 2027.
Aviation standout. The aviation segment continued to post double-digit growth (+13% y/y), reaching revenue of €158M in Q4. Full-year revenue reached €621M (+25% y/y), benefiting from Intelsat’s IFC footprint and rising airline connectivity adoption. SES’s multi-orbit ESA is now operational on >500 aircraft, with 16 airlines selecting the platform for >1,000 aircraft