PA

Panamsat Holding Corp. recorded a profit of $72.7 million in 2005, rebounding from a loss of $79 million in 2004, the company announced March 9. The 2004 loss was impacted by pre-tax charges of $155.1 million, a $99.9 million satellite impairment charge and a $29.6 million write-off related to a customer transponder lease termination.

Revenues of $861 million in 2005 represented a 4.1 percent increase over revenues of $827.1 million in 2004. Fixed Satellite Services (FSS) revenues improved from $762.9 million in 2004 to $799.6 million in 2005, driven by higher video services revenues of $36.8 million, higher government services revenues of $4.4 million and higher consulting/technical services revenues of $6.8 million. G2 segment revenues were $87.6 million in 2005, compared to $85.9 million in 2004.

FSS income from operations was $343.3 million in 2005, compared to $8.5 million in 2004 when Panamsat recorded the various charges. G2 operating income was $15.9 million in 2005, down from $17.7 million in 2004.

"Panamsat finished the year in an extremely strong position as we completed one of the most successful years in the company’s history," CEO Joe Wright said in a statement. "Our management team has now met or exceeded guidance for four years in a row while also continuing to increase our revenues and profitability."

ISAT.L

Mobile Satellite Services provider Inmarsat plc posted revenues of $491.1 million in 2005, up from revenues of $480.7 in 2004, driven by growth in providing services to the maritime sector, Inmarsat announced March 9.

Revenues in the maritime sector improved 6 percent in 2005 to $267.1 million due to strong adoption of Fleet services. Growth in data services was partially offset by lower voice revenues, though the rate of decline in voice revenues has been slowed by the ongoing analog-to-digital conversion and successful off-peak promotions, Inmarsat said.

The maritime sector growth offset declines in land sector revenues, which fell 9 percent in 2005 to $121.8 million. Data revenues slipped 7 percent due to reduced activity from government and military users in the Middle East and the impact of reduced pricing for R-BGAN service designed to stimulate demand in certain areas. Demand for voice services also slipped due to competition from handheld operators.

Aeronautical revenues grew 34 percent to $22.7 million, as installations of Swift64 terminals during the first half of 2005 contributed to revenue growth in the second half of the year. Leasing revenues climbed 7 percent to $60.9 million, due to a five-year agreement with the Japanese Civil Aviation Authority, as well as some short-term demand during the second half of 2005 as a result of Hurricane Katrina and the earthquake in Pakistan.

"It was a strong finish to a transformational year," Andrew Sukawaty, Inmarsat’s Chairman and CEO, said in a statement. "We are pleased with our solid financial performance and significant operational achievements in 2005. With the successful launch of two Inmarsat-4 satellites we have added significant life and new capacity to our network and enabled the introduction of BGAN services (Broadband Global Area Network), a global DSL-like offering. With these steps now behind us we are entering 2006 with confidence and believe strongly in the diverse growth opportunities for our business."

EADS

EADS Space Division posted earning before interest and taxes of 58 million euros ($69.3 million) in 2005, up from 9 million euros ($10.8 million) in 2004, as revenues remained relatively flat at 3 billion euros ($3.6 billion), EADS reported March 8.

The improvement in earnings before interest and taxes reflects growth in all space business units, combined with cost savings following a restructuring. Revenues were driven by the delivery of telecommunication satellites and the Ariane 5 production ramp-up, as well as increase in Paradigm service revenues. At year-end 2005, the division’s order book stood at 10.9 billion euros ($13 billion), down slightly from 11.3 billion ($13.5 billion) euros at the end of 2004.

Overall, EADS posted a profit of 1.7 billion euros ($2 billion) in 2005, as revenues climbed to 34.2 billion euros ($40.9 billion).

While Airbus continues to drive EADS overall performance, "profitability at Eurocopter, and at our combined defense and space businesses is also on a clear upward trend," EADS CEOs Thomas Enders and Noel Forgeard, said in a statement.

DISH, DTV

Wall Street analysts view AT&T‘s planned acquisition of Bellsouth as a "good news, bad news" scenario for the direct broadcast satellite (DBS) industry.

Both Credit Suisse and Lehman Brothers see Echostar Communications Corp., which operates the Dish network, as benefiting from a combined AT&T- Bellsouth, while DirecTV would take a serious hit.

Bryan Kraft, a media equity analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston, said, the telecom merger would have a more negative impact on DirecTV than Echostar, because Echostar’s distribution relationship with AT&T will trump the one DirecTV has with Bellsouth. "With AT&T buying Bellsouth, we believe there is a very high probability that AT&T decides to end the DirecTV relationship and apply the Echostar relationship to the entire combined company," Kraft said in a research note. "There is a change of control provision in the DirecTV-Bellsouth agreement that allows either party to terminate in the event of a change in control. The impact of ending the DirecTV agreement would be lower subscriber growth for DirecTV and higher subscriber growth for Echostar."

Lehman Brothers said such a result is legally possible, because "the extended [DirecTV-Bellsouth] partnership announced in February contains change-in-control provisions which we believe would enable AT&T to exit the relationship upon completion of a merger."

The Bellsouth partnership produced 670,000 gross additions in 2005, about 16 percent of the company’s 4.2 million gross additions for the year, as well as about 195,000 net additions, or about 16 percent of DirecTV’s total.

The only potential good news for DirecTV is that a combined AT&T-Bellsouth would be more aggressive "in terms of pricing, fiber deployment and video strategy," said Credit Suisse. As a result, cable TV companies covering Bellsouth’s 20 million homes would find themselves faced with a more vigorous competitor, possibly weakening cable to DBS’ advantage. "We believe Charter has the highest exposure to Bellsouth at about 35 percent, followed by Comcast at about 17 percent and Time Warner at 10 percent … while "Cablevision has no exposure to Bellsouth," Credit Suisse said.

XSR-SV.TO

Canadian Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. (CSR), which offers satellite radio services under the XM Canada brand, has attracted more than 50,000 subscribers in its first three months of operations, the company announced March 6.

At the end of the company’s 2006 first quarter, which closed Feb. 28, XM Canada had 44,000 paying customers with the remainder on trial subscriptions. The company credited the subscriber growth to retail radio sales and said that its two auto deals, with GM Canada and Subaru Canada, have yet to contribute paying customers.

CSR, which launched service Nov. 22, expects to reach its subscriber guidance of 75,000 by the end of August, the company said.

NOC

Northrop Grumman Corp. agreed to buy back 11.6 million shares of stock from Credit Suisse for about $750 million, Northrop Grumman announced March 7. Under the accelerated share repurchase agreement, the stock will be priced at $64.78 per share.

"This new [accelerated share repurchase] marks the completion of more than 80 percent of the $1.5 billion share repurchase program we announced last October," said Ronald Sugar, Northrop Grumman’s chairman, CEO and president, in a statement. "This agreement reduces shares outstanding by an immediate and substantial amount and demonstrates our continued commitment to a balanced cash deployment strategy."

Including the latest agreement, Northrop Grumman has spent $3 billion since August 2003 to buy back about 53 million shares of its stock.