Intelsat hit by challenging African environment

Intelsat reported a decline in revenues and profits in the third quarter, claiming that network services growth from new business was more than offset by a “challenging environment” in Africa.

Announcing its quarterly numbers, Intelsat said that a 4% revenue decrease at its network services group was largely due to continued roll-off of legacy services such as channel and point-to-point trunking in Africa.

Intelsat’s media business suffered a 3% year-on-year decrease, in part due to lower North American revenues. However, Intelsat said that the expected Q4 entry into service of the Intelsat 30 satellite will provide a “growth catalyst for our media business,” and will be followed by the launch of the Intelsat 31 and Intelsat 34 satellites in late 2015.

“The successful launch of Intelsat 30 represents a return to the launch pad after nearly a year and a half, the first of a series of launches over the next 18 months that will result in a significant enhancement to our marketable capacity. In advance of these launches, we are working on critical elements of our service offerings to ensure that we have access to unique technologies and capabilities that will enable new services on our network,” said Intelsat chairman and CEO, Dave McGlade.

Overall, Third quarter revenues came to US$609 million (€772 million), down 7% compared to the same quarter last year.

Adjusted EBITDA for the period was US$485 million, down from US$508 million a year earlier. Net income attributable to Intelsat was US$68 million in the third quarter of 2014, compared to US$88 million a year earlier.