Rodolphe Belmer, CEO of Eutelsat Communications, said: “During the past year, we have delivered or over-delivered on all our financial commitments. In particular, our strong performance on free cash flow generation has enabled us to reduce net debt to below 3.3x EBITDA, and to recommend a strong, 10% rise in dividend.

Our performance was supported by solid commercial momentum in our core video business and in other verticals – particularly mobile connectivity, as well as the strengthening of our financial profile. In consequence, we are on track to achieve top-line stability in FY 2017-18, with a return to slight growth thereafter.

The successful execution of our LEAP cost-savings plan will help us deliver an EBITDA margin above 76% in FY 2017-18, and we are raising our target for FY 2018-19 and beyond to above 77%. We also maintain our commitment to free cash flow growth, where we target mid-single digit compound growth for the next three years off the extremely high base achieved in FY 2016-17, with growth back-end loaded in the outer two years. This will enable us to further deleverage, with net debt / EBITDA now forecast below 3.0x within the next couple of years, while continuing to serve a stable to progressive dividend to our shareholders.

At the same time, we are laying the foundations for long term value-creation, with a strong focus on securing durable capex efficiencies while paving the way for step up in growth in the early 2020s, supported by our Connectivity verticals.”