(AOF) – SES-imagotag has announced the completion of the acquisition of 100% of the capital of Irish data intelligence start-up MarketHub Technologies Limited. Its founder, Roy Horgan, joins the executive committee of SES-imagotag as Group SEVP in charge of Strategy, Marketing and Communication. With this acquisition, the specialist in IoT solutions and digital labels for physical commerce is continuing its investment in smart commerce. He had a majority stake in Irish since 2019.
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Key points
– The world’s leading operator of telecommunications satellites, created in 1985 covering the entire world population with 74 satellites;
– Turnover of € 1.88 billion from video – distribution and related services – for 65% and networks – government, mobility and data – for 35%;
– Economic model in two points / video: generate high self-financing and increase the quality of service, particularly in HD and OTT / networks: focus growth on 3 segments – data for telecoms and the cloud, mobility and secure connectivity for governments;
– Capital held at 11.58% of the voting rights by Luxembourg and at 10.88% by BCEE and SNCI and cannot accommodate another shareholder with more than 20.1%, Frank Esser chairing the board of directors of 12 members and Steve Celler being general manager;
– Healthy financial situation with free cash flow of € 1 billion and debt leverage of 2.9.
– In a market which should double within 10 years, strategy aiming at revenue growth, greater than that of operating profit, at reducing investments and achieving financial balance;
– Innovation strategy: oriented towards 2 reservoirs of future growth: connected mobility applications in the air, maritime and automotive sectors, and solutions linked to data and the cloud, combining land and space applications / co-creating with customers incubation solutions;
– Environmental strategy: after maintaining CO2 emissions at 40 Mt for 10 years despite the increase in activity, initiation of a reduction since 2018 / reduction of waste in space via the reuse of launchers and sending to an orbital cemetery;
– Balanced industrial investment policy between satellites and ground terminals;
– In 2021, launch of the SES-17 satellite and the 7 03bmPOWER satellites, disruptive in the cloud, IoT, mobile data and artificial intelligence, leading to an increase to € 1.35 billion in capex and securing growth from from 2023;
– Order book of € 5.6 billion;
– Reflections on a subsidiary of the network activity.
Challenges
– Stock market volatility in relation to the statements of competitors Eutelsat and Inmarsat, concentration operations in the sector, orders in the military sector, particularly in the United States, as well as the progress of Google / Qualcomm, Tesla and Sky mega-projects;
– Creation of value thanks to the compensation by the American FFC, Federal Communications Commission, for the provision of “the C-band”, at the estimated amount of € 4 billion paid in 2 payments (€ 1 billion at the start of 2022 then € 3 billion in 2023);
– Achievement of ambitions to increase the result in 2022 after the launch of the SES-17;
– At the end of September 2021, 6.5% drop in income and 17% increase in net income;
– 2021 objectives, revised downwards: 1.76 to 1.82 billion euros in income and 1.12 to 1.16 billion euros in operating profit.
The Middle East ESC
Still relatively unknown compared to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the Gitex (Gulf Information Technology Exhibition) in Dubai has existed since 1981 and attracts around 100,000 visitors per year. Even if it wants to compete with CES in Las Vegas, and the region is a very tech-savvy market, Gitex remains, despite its internationalization, still a regional hub for technology. CES covers the United States, North America and Europe at the same time, while Gitex covers the Middle East, Africa and South Asia in 2021. at the same time as the Dubai World Expo. France was the second most represented country, behind Italy.