Intelsat Announces Second Quarter 2021 Results

August 03, 2021

Intelsat S.A. announced financial results for the three months ended June 30, 2021.

Intelsat reported total revenue was $507.9 million and net loss attributable to Intelsat S.A. was $152.3 million for the three months ended June 30, 2021.

Intelsat reported EBITDA1, or earnings before net interest, taxes and depreciation and amortization, of $150.4 million and Adjusted EBITDA1 of $283.8 million, or 56% of revenue, for the three months ended June 30, 2021.

Intelsat’s Chief Executive Officer, Stephen Spengler, said, “We generated strong operating performance across all our business sectors during the quarter. Network Services benefited from new mobility business from FlexMaritime managed services and the recovery in North American airline travel resulting in higher inflight connectivity revenues. Solid results in Media were driven by new business in our Europe and Asia markets and we also announced a contract expansion with a major media company that is expected to generate additional revenues in the future. The start of hosted payload service on our Galaxy 30 satellite and continued demand for our FlexMove land mobility managed services positively impacted our Government business.”

Spengler concluded, “Our results demonstrate that we are well positioned to capitalize on an improving economic environment as the global market leader in connectivity solutions. We are making critical investments to expand our leadership position through innovation. We expect these investments will generate broader opportunities to secure new revenue streams while simultaneously optimizing our cost structure to compete more effectively. Investment in our next generation network is our highest priority. We are leveraging our unparalleled global orbital and spectrum rights, scale and partnerships to build the world’s first global 5G satellite-based software-defined network. The Intelsat network will support a range of access technologies, enabling an open architecture network for global mobility, the Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G services with simplicity, coverage and performance.”

Second Quarter 2021 Business Highlights

Intelsat provides critical communications infrastructure to customers in the network services, media and government sectors. Our customers use our services for broadband connectivity to deliver fixed and mobile telecommunications, enterprise, video distribution and fixed and mobile government applications.

Network Services

Network services revenue was $221.0 million (or 44% of Intelsat’s total revenue, which consolidates revenue from our commercial aviation business), for the three months ended June 30, 2021, an increase of 25% compared to the three months ended June 30, 2020. Factors positively impacting revenue included in flight connectivity services and the expansion of services with mobility and network customers. The increase in revenue was partially offset by specific non-renewals and capacity and price reductions across our mobility and networks customer sets.

Media

Media revenue was $184.2 million (or 36% of Intelsat’s total revenue) for the three months ended June 30, 2021, a decrease of 9% compared to the three months ended June 30, 2020. The decline in media was primarily driven by a planned service migration by a specific customer from Intelsat's network to the customer's own network assets. Other factors impacting revenue were terminations and non-renewals reflecting industry trends. The declines in revenue were slightly offset by new business expansion.

Government

Government revenue was $95.8 million (or 19% of Intelsat’s total revenue) for the three months ended June 30, 2021, a nominal decrease compared to the three months ended June 30, 2020. The entry into service of a hosted payload on Galaxy 30 and continued growth of FlexMove land mobility managed services contributed to revenue for the quarter. This was offset by specific non-renewals and capacity and price reductions.

Average Fill Rate

Intelsat’s average fill rate as of June 30, 2021 on our approximately 1,625 36 MHz station-kept wide-beam transponders was 74%, similar to our average fill rate at March 31, 2021. In addition, as of June 30, 2021 our fleet included approximately 1,220 36 MHz equivalent transponders of high-throughput Intelsat Epic capacity, consistent with the prior quarter.

Contracted Backlog

At June 30, 2021, Intelsat’s contracted backlog, representing expected future revenue under existing contracts with customers, was $6.0 billion, as compared to $5.9 billion at March 31, 2021.

Financial Results for the Three Months Ended June 30, 2021

Total revenue for the three months ended June 30, 2021 increased by $25.8 million to $507.9 million, or an increase of 5 percent as compared to the three months ended June 30, 2020, primarily reflecting the consolidation of revenue from our commercial aviation business.

Direct costs of revenue (excluding depreciation and amortization) increased by $56.4 million, or 53 percent, to $163.3 million for the three months ended June 30, 2021, as compared to the three months ended June 30, 2020. The increase was primarily due to a $61.2 million increase in costs attributable to our commercial aviation business.

Selling, general and administrative expenses increased by $36.3 million, or 57 percent, to $100.2 million for the three months ended June 30, 2021, as compared to the three months ended June 30, 2020. The increase was primarily due to a $30.6 million increase in costs attributable to our commercial aviation business and a $4.0 million increase in staff-related expenses largely relating to our employee retention incentive plans.

Depreciation and amortization expense increased by $5.6 million, or 3 percent, to $168.3 million for the three months ended June 30, 2021, as compared to the three months ended June 30, 2020. Significant items impacting depreciation and amortization in the period included an increase of $7.4 million in depreciation and amortization expense attributable to our commercial aviation business and an increase of $3.1 million in depreciation expense resulting from the impact of a certain satellite placed into service. These increases were partially offset by a decrease of $5.4 million in depreciation expense due to the timing of certain satellites becoming fully depreciated.

Other operating expense—C-band consists of reimbursable and non-reimbursable costs associated with our C-band spectrum relocation efforts. We incurred $64.6 million of C-band clearing related expenses for the three months ended June 30, 2021, with no material comparable amounts for the three months ended June 30, 2020.

Interest expense, net consists of the gross interest expense we incur, together with gains and losses on interest rate cap contracts we held that matured in February 2021 (which reflected the change in their fair value), offset by interest income earned and the amount of interest we capitalize related to assets under construction.

Interest expense, net decreased by $92.6 million, or 42 percent, to $129.9 million for the three months ended June 30, 2021, as compared to the three months ended June 30, 2020. This was primarily due to a decrease of $76.4 million in interest expense resulting from our Chapter 11 restructuring activities, and a $13.1 million decrease due to higher capitalized interest primarily resulting from increased levels of satellites and related assets under construction.

The non-cash portion of interest expense, net was $26.6 million for the three months ended June 30, 2021, primarily consisting of interest expense related to the significant financing component identified in customer contracts, amortization and accretion of discounts and premiums, and amortization of deferred financing fees.

Other income, net was $20.2 million for the three months ended June 30, 2021, as compared to $2.8 million for the three months ended June 30, 2020. The net increase in other income primarily consisted of a $13.0 million gain, due to a change in fair value of a certain investment and a sale of an investment in a third party company, as well as foreign currency gains, with a net positive impact of $3.3 million for the three months ended June 30, 2021.

Reorganization items reflect direct costs incurred in connection with our Chapter 11 restructuring activities. Reorganization items of $49.6 million for the three months ended June 30, 2021 primarily consisted of professional fees. Reorganization items of $298.7 million for the three months ended June 30, 2020 primarily consisted of $197.0 million related to the write-off of debt discount, premium and issuance costs, $52.2 million of financing fees related to the DIP Facility (as defined below) and $49.0 million in professional fees.

Income tax expense increased by $3.1 million to $3.9 million for the three months ended June 30, 2021, as compared to the three months ended June 30, 2020. The increase was principally attributable to higher income from our U.S. subsidiaries, withholding taxes on revenue earned in some of the non-U.S. jurisdictions in which we operate and prior year adjustments from impacts of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Cash paid for income taxes, net of refunds, totaled $1.7 million and $2.1 million for the three months ended June 30, 2020 and 2021, respectively.

Net Income, Net Income per Diluted Common Share attributable to Intelsat S.A., EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA

Net loss attributable to Intelsat S.A. was $152.3 million for the three months ended June 30, 2021, compared to a net loss of $405.4 million for the same period in 2020.

Net loss per diluted common share attributable to Intelsat S.A. was $1.07 for the three months ended June 30, 2021, compared to net loss of $2.85 per diluted common share for the same period in 2020.

EBITDA was $150.4 million for the three months ended June 30, 2021, compared to ($18.8) million for the same period in 2020, reflecting lower interest expense, higher income, and lower reorganization fees as described above.

Adjusted EBITDA was $283.8 million for the three months ended June 30, 2021, or 56 percent of revenue, compared to $342.4 million, or 71 percent of revenue, for the same period in 2020.

Free Cash Flow Used In Operations1

Net cash provided by operating activities was $26.0 million for the three months ended June 30, 2021. Free cash flow used in operations was $198.4 million for the same period. Free cash flow from (used in) operations is defined as net cash provided by (used in) operating activities and other proceeds from satellites from investing activities, less payments for satellites and other property and equipment (including capitalized interest) from investing activities. Payments for satellites and other property and equipment from investing activities, net during the three months ended June 30, 2021 were $224.4 million.