[Satellite TODAY 02-28-13] MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA), has reported its financial results for the full 2012 year and fourth quarter. Consolidated revenues for the full year increased to $880 million compared to $761 million for 2011. 

   Revenues for the Communications segment were $387 million, up from $238 million the year before. Since in 2012 MDA completed the acquisition of Space Systems/Loral (SSL), the results of SSL were included in the Communications segment from the date of acquisition (Nov. 2, 2012). Revenues for the Surveillance and Intelligence segment were $493 million compared to $523 million for 2011. 

   Operating earnings (non-IFRS financial measure) for the full year 2012 increased to $127 million ($3.98 per share) compared to $117 million ($2.99 per share) for last year. Non-operational items such as transaction costs related to the acquisition of SSL, impacted the net earnings under IFRS for MDA in 2012, which affected comparability of financial results to the prior year. After giving effect to these adjustments, net earnings from continuing operations for the full year 2012 were $86 million ($2.71 per share) compared to $130 million ($3.31 per share) for 2011.

   With the acquisition of SS/L, the company ended the year with funded order backlog of $2.2 billion compared with $805 million at December 31, 2011. MDA declared a semi-annual dividend of $0.65 per common share, payable on March 28, 2013 to common shareholders of record at the close of business on March 15, 2013.

Separately, MDA announced two new contracts with DigitalGlobe. Under the first one, MDA will upgrade the WorldView Production Segment headquarters’ systems to provide full support for the WorldView-3 satellite, which is scheduled for launch in 2014, and is expected to be the first multi-sensor, super-spectral, high-resolution commercial satellite.

   Under the second contract, MDA will provide operational support and enhancements to the Production Segment headquarters’ systems. These systems process information from DigitalGlobe’s constellation of imaging satellites to generate a wide variety of image products.