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Ses Sa Glbl Fid Dep Shs
2/27/2021
Hello and welcome to the SES full year 2020 results. My name is Josh and I will be your coordinator for today's event. For the duration of the call, your lines will be on listen only. However, you will have the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the call. This can be done by pressing star 1 on your telephone keypad to register your question. If you require assistance at any point, please press star 0 and you will be connected to an operator. I will now hand you over to your host, Richard Whitey, to begin today's conference. Thank you.
Thanks, Josh. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining our investor and analyst results call for the 12-month-ended 31st of December 2020. This morning's presentation was uploaded, along with the press release, to the investor section at ses.com this morning, if you don't already have it. As always, please note the disclaimer at the back. In a moment, Steve Collar, CEO, will present the main business highlights, followed by Sandeep Jalan, CFO, to cover the financials in more detail. After some closing remarks from Steve, we will be happy to take your questions, where we're also joined from the US by JP Hemingway, CEO of SES Networks. And so on that note, let me hand to Steve.
Very good. Thank you, Richard. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us this morning. I'm going to start on page three. And first and foremost, I'm extremely pleased with the results that we've delivered in 2020, a year that I think we would all agree was extraordinary. Most notably, as a business, we've delivered on the EBITDA outlook that we provided this time last year, before the onset of COVID-19, and it's an important and noteworthy achievement, I believe. And as a result, we're comfortably towards the high end of our EBITDA guidance that we provided in the middle of the year. So this was only possible because we recognised early that we would need to sharply reduce discretionary spend in anticipation of the inevitably lower revenue induced by COVID-19. And the results that we're announcing today reflect the focus and discipline that we adopted to protect the bottom line. It also marks the third year in a row of delivery against our outlook to the market. Staying with the theme of strong execution in the core of our business, we've not only reduced OPEX year in year, we've also taken steps needed to deliver on our simplify and amplify savings of $40 million in 2021 and $50 million on a run rate basis by 2022. Leverage is also at a five-year low, with half a billion of year-on-year net debt reduction on the back of extremely strong cash generation and continued financial discipline. We've enjoyed success in the market with a number of important renewals and extensions at our core video neighbourhoods over the last few months, starting with an extension and expansion with Canal Plus valued at over €230 million, a slew of agreements with public broadcasters including ARD, ZDF and the BBC, and concluding with this morning's announcement of a substantial extension with Sky at 28.2%. Our networks business has grown more than 5% in a year and almost 30% since 2017, and in total we've signed more than €1.3 billion in customer contracts during 2020. We're super excited about the fact that we'll launch both SES17 and O2DM power this year. And we told you during the Q3 results that we'd be updating the market on our progress in commercializing these fantastic new assets. I'm really pleased to note that in just three months, we've increased the backlog by 40% to now $740 million. underscoring the fact that we will be the first to market with our second generation low latency constellation, now intelligently combined with our geo assets in a multi-orbit global network. In anticipation of O3B Empower, we've also closed a number of deals on our MEO network that showcase new use cases, most notably with naval customers, and these have the potential to scale substantially on O3B Empower where we moved from an environment of 10 beams per satellite to more than 5,000. Our commitment to delivering shareholder return is reflected in today's announcement to maintain a stable and fixed dividend of 40 cents a share. As importantly for shareholders, 2020 was a year in which we crystallized the repurposing of C-band for 5G in the US with 4 billion in accelerated clearing payments due to SES upon successful clearing and the first milestone less than a year away. Our clearing plan is fully on track and on schedule. The proceeds from seed bank clearing will add to the substantially expanding free cash flow generation from 2023 onwards, from the combination of expanding revenue and EBITDA, driven by the investments that we've made in growth, together with a meaningful reduction in capex, with more than €390 million removed from our plan over the period, and substantially lower average capex profile from 2023 onwards. In fact, as we look ahead to 2023, we'll have completed the investment in and launched the most flexible, state-of-the-art, high-throughput, multi-orbit KABAM network, coming to the market as the world recovers from COVID, with the demand for data and connectivity everywhere paramount, driving strong growth in revenue in EBITDA, and with these major investments behind us, a substantially lowered capex profile and strong cash flow, augmented by the additional $3 billion in gross CBAN proceeds that we will earn at the end of 2023. So having covered those highlights, I'll go more rapidly through the remainder of the deck, starting on page four with the numbers. In video, we closed the year in line with the upper end of our outlook, while in networks, we posted a third year of strong growth, and this despite the COVID-induced challenges faced in the aviation and cruise markets, two of our stronger growth markets in previous years. Adjusted EBITDA of €1.15 billion was also at the top end of our COVID-updated outlook. We strengthened the balance sheet with €0.5 billion in debt reduction. Our leverage and interest costs are now at their lowest level for five years. As mentioned, we're reaffirming our commitment to shareholder return with a proposed dividend in line with last year and our financial policy to maintain a minimum base dividend of €0.40 going forward. So turning to the markets and a page on video, page five. Our video business was extremely resilient during 2020 and our customers saw an increase in demand for linear broadcast content. We served 365 million households or more than a billion people across the globe with programming and content and I was particularly pleased with the amount of business that we were able to close with our most important customers at our most valuable orbital locations. We signed $650 million in video contracts in 2020, anchored by Canal Plus, who committed to over $230 million in incremental backlog, and who are consolidating a substantial part of their M7 business with FES through the end of the decade. And today we announced a multi-transponder extension with Sky, one of FES's longest standing and most important customers and partners, to support their standard definition, high definition, and ultra-high definition distribution to their subscribers across the UK and the Republic of Ireland. Since Q3, we've signed deals with major European broadcasters, totaling more than 440 million in contract backlog. We've also had success in the emerging markets, securing the future of Ethiopian DTH at 57 East, developing an innovative hybrid online video platform in collaboration with Dish Mexico, and launching HD Plus in Ghana, the first market for HD Plus outside Germany. Speaking of HD Plus... our B2C business in Germany generating 125 million in revenue. We've seen good momentum in 2020 with subscribers up in the second half of the year, fuelled by our unique and state-of-the-art operator app installed in every third TV set sold in Germany and avoiding the need for a dedicated set-top box. More to come, I would say, from HD Plus through the year. We continue to be the global leader in premium content with almost 3,000 high-definition, ultra-high-definition TV channels carried across the SES network, over 60% more than the next operator. We've unparalleled technical reach and unrivaled quality, and we're adding hybrid cloud-based solutions to the broad portfolio of services that we deliver to our customers. The value of these capabilities and their long-term strategic importance to our customers is evidenced by the growing net promoter score, something we're really proud of, and substantial video backlog of 3.4 billion. So now flipping over to page six and our networks business, which delivered a third successive year of strong performance, having grown by almost 30% since 2017. We certainly saw the impact of the global pandemic on two of the fastest growing segments that we've had historically, aviation and cruise. And notwithstanding that, the business reaffirmed its status as the growth engine for SES with a positive year-over-year contribution in all three segments. Our government business delivered a step up in revenue in the second half, and as I mentioned, we achieved breakthroughs with new applications for our Neo-Constellation, with the US government in particular and the Navy being the standout. In addition, for our global government team, we secured two new governments for our roster of governments that we serve, and that will drive revenues in 2021 and beyond. Another feature of networks in 2020 and one that differentiates us meaningfully from our peers is the growth that we've posted in fixed data, up 7% year-on-year on an underlying basis. And this comes from the deployment of rural inclusion projects, cell backhaul, and high-capacity trunking resulting in an expansion across the Americas, Africa, and Asia. Our strategy of transforming Tier 1 telco customers into strategic partners continues. with service upgrades and network expansions underpinning this fixed data growth. We have many successful projects expanding the coverage of 4G around the globe, and in 2020, we actually executed a very important trial with a major mobile operator, successfully running 5G services over our MioLink with performance scores equivalent to those of Fiverr, and really exciting when we put that in the context of the launch of O3D Empower coming up later this year. In mobility, we've recorded 9% growth year-on-year. That really reflects the good work that we did at the back end of 2019 in signing incremental services. And the team has done a really fantastic job in working with our long-term partners in what has been a challenging time for their businesses, while managing to secure additional future commitments and backlog. In cruise, for example, we've worked together in this period on the industry's preparing for return to service to secure... passenger innovation over the long term with five of our partners selecting O3BN Power and the majority of contracts going out through 2026 and beyond. We've consistently spoken about making satellite mainstream and enabling global cloud adoption as key priorities for SES and we've made really important progress on that during 2020. We've continued to drive forward our foundational partnership with Microsoft, creating new cloud-centric products and generating revenues from ground station as a service, underpinning Microsoft's new Azure Orbital offering. And in addition, we've started to see the benefit of collaborating with Microsoft on connected cloud solutions, and have chosen a truly, closed a truly innovative deal in our maritime business as a result. In combination, we're seeing cloud-related backlog in the order of 35 million euros, which is a really promising start to our cloud business. So with that, I'll turn to CBAN on page seven. And 2020 was a landmark year for our CBAN initiative. From the beginning of the year, the approval of the final report and order to the election of all satellite operators and ending with the most successful spectrum auction in history, achieving almost 95 billion in total auction proceeds. And some of you will have seen this morning that Verizon alone bid more than 45 billion, underscoring the value of our CBAN spectrum. Our clearing is fully on track, with £4 billion in proceeds coming to SES on successful accelerated clearing. We expect to meet the FCC's envisaged timelines, and the first of which is now only some nine months away. As previously guided, and in the context of 2021 and 2022 being important years of investment in our network, proceeds of the first £1 billion pre-tax from the first clearing milestone at the end of the year will be used for strengthening of the balance sheet. Second proceeds will be used for a mix of return to shareholders, further balance sheet strengthening as required, and value accretive investment, bearing in mind that we've already invested substantially in our fleet. We have limited capex needs beyond our growth investment peak in 2022, and we affirm our commitment to strong financial discipline. The second clearing milestone at the end of 2023 is time to coincide with growing cash flows from our business, following important investments in our next generation network and lower overall capex offering significant value creation for our shareholders. At the same time, we're pursuing our claim of up to $1.8 billion in damages against Idlesat and have engaged market leading expert legal and advisory teams to support the case. It's too early to say what the outcome will be, but we believe we have a strong case, and there's obviously potential for substantial incremental value for SES. And lastly, the success of the CBAN process in the U.S. has started to open up possibilities for further engagements in other markets, such as Canada and Brazil, as well as additional opportunities in the U.S. We're actively involved in examining these, as you would expect. And finally, for completeness on page 10, and I've covered a number of these points, a reminder of the four growth initiatives that we've identified consistently as important for SES's growth in the future. I've already spoken about CBAN, and to reiterate my confidence in realising what is a substantial opportunity for shareholder value creation with CBAN. In 2020, we also completed the implementation of our Simplify and Amplify cost optimization measures. We've locked in 40 million in recurring OpEx cost optimization in 2021, and that will ramp to 50 million in 2022 and beyond. We're really excited at the upcoming launches of SES17 and O3D Empower, which both remain on track, as does the development of the entire multi-order ecosystem that we're building around these two great assets. This excitement is being reflected in customers committing to our network, with, as I mentioned, backlog for FES17 and O3D Empower now at $740 million, up 40% since Q3. I'm really pleased with the level of engagement that we're getting with government and fixed data segments, and even in cruise, where obviously, despite the COVID environment, our cruise customers are looking out beyond that and to an important phase of growth as the world recovers. And we continue to lead the industry in enabling cloud adoption on a global scale, including but not limited to our partnership with Microsoft. It's a relatively small proportion of our revenue today, but the $35 million in backlog that I referred to earlier represents a really good start for our cloud strategy. So those four initiatives are the four that we will continue to track and that will drive substantial value for us in 2021 and beyond. So with that, I'll hand over to Sandy.
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