Yahsat’s 9-month revenue jumps to Dh1.2b in Abu Dhabi

Yahsat, an Abu Dhabi-based satellite operator, saw a 19% decline in nine-month net income to Dh128.45 million from Dh157.8 million a year earlier. Revenues rose 11% to Dh1.2 billion, however, as Yahsat benefited from its numerous government contracts as well as new investments in mobile communications.
The contracted future revenue totals Dh7.6 billion [$2.1 billion], and ‘equivalent to more than 5 times annual revenue for the full year 2021’, Yahsat said in a statement. It added that it is sitting on a ‘robust financial position’ with negative net debt and a ‘high visibility on future cash flows underpins ability to invest in growth and sustain attractive dividend policy’.
Yahsat will be paying a minimum of Dh393 million as 2022 dividend, with half of it already reaching shareholders.
A potential procurement of two satellites – Al Yah 4 and Al Yah 5 – is under consideration for launches in 2026, which will ‘secure continuity of service well beyond the lifetime of our existing fleet’, the company said in a statement.
As for the drop in net income, it relates to a non-cash impairment of Dh149 million from the JV in HPE Brazil. Yahsat owns a 20 per cent non-controlling stake in the entity. “This reflected a rapid deterioration in the global macro-economic environment, which significantly increased the discount rate used in assessing the recoverable amount of this investment,” Yahsat said in the statement.
Stripping this off and only the ‘normalised net income’ was used, Yahsat’s nine-month 2022 tally would have been Dh278 million. (A normalised net income refers to stripping out impact from non-recurring items to better understand a company’s ongoing net income.)
“Yahsat delivered another excellent performance with third quarter revenue and EBITDA growth accelerating compared to the first-half of 2022,” said Ali Al Hashemi, Group CEO. “Our core government business has performed particularly well with quarterly revenues in our managed solutions business more than doubling year-on-year.
“We will be in a good position to address the growing demand for cutting-edge satellite communication solutions from the UAE Government by purchasing the T4-NGS satellite, which is scheduled to be launched in the first half of 2024 and begin operations in the first half of 2025. The commercial mobility operations we have will receive strong support from T4-NGS as well. These operations saw double-digit revenue growth in the first nine months of the year.”