SES Lowers Revenue Forecast, Says 03Bb Expansion Top Priority

Credit: SES photo

By Peter B. de Selding | Oct. 31, 2014

SES CEO Karim Michel Sabbagh said spending on O3b is a higher priority given what he has seen of customer reaction to the service. O3b has begun demonstrating its system to the U.S. government, he said.

PARIS — Satellite fleet operator SES on Oct. 31 reduced its expected revenue performance for 2014, saying that it is now suffering — later than its competitors — the full effects of U.S. Defense Department budget pressures. … SES Chief Executive Karim Michel Sabbagh also said during the call that SES’s first investment priority for the coming months will be expanding the fleet of O3b Networks, a company in which SES has a major stake and options to become majority shareholder.

O3b has launched eight satellites into medium Earth orbit. While the first four have an onboard issue that likely will reduce their operating lives and deliver a $315 million insurance claim into O3b’s treasury, the company has maintained the minimum six in full operational status and, since September, has begun loading commercial customers onto the service  …  He pointed to SES Government Solutions’ win, in September, of the U.S. Army Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) contract for five years of satellite capacity, using entirely SES fleet capacity, as a subcontractor to AIS Engineering Inc. of Silver Spring, Maryland.

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