A major European satellite operator announced Monday it will reduce its investment spending for 2026 while gearing up for a significant satellite deployment later this year.
SES, headquartered in Luxembourg, revealed plans to launch as many as 13 satellites in the coming months while trimming its capital expenditure forecast by 100 million euros to approximately 700 million euros for 2026.
The company delivered annual financial results that aligned with Wall Street predictions on Monday. Following the announcement, SES stock initially fell as much as 7% during morning trading in Paris before recovering to post a 3.7% gain by mid-morning.
Financial analysts from ING noted that SES exceeded expectations in its fourth-quarter performance, though they pointed out the company has not released projections beyond 2026. The satellite deployment timeline has been pushed to the latter half of this year, which may delay anticipated revenue increases from the new platform.
SES completed its massive $3.1 billion purchase of Intelsat in the previous year. The combined entity generated annual revenue of 2.63 billion euros ($3.09 billion) and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of 1.2 billion euros, figures that matched industry analyst forecasts.
According to company officials, growing demand for secure communication services across Europe helped balance out negative effects from the U.S. government shutdown and budget reductions implemented by the now-defunct Department of Governmental Efficiency.
The satellite operator secured 1.8 billion euros in new business contracts during 2025, bringing its total contract backlog to more than 6.6 billion euros.
Company leadership projects steady revenue and core earnings for 2026 when compared on an equivalent basis. The reduced capital spending reflects the company’s strategy to balance investments between its medium orbit O3b mPOWER satellite network and the European Union’s low orbit IRIS² initiative.
SES indicated it continues working alongside the European Commission to confirm costs and implementation schedules for IRIS², which represents the EU’s independent connectivity infrastructure designed to rival Elon Musk’s Starlink service.
