WASHINGTON---The Annual General Meeting of Arianespace shareholders, held in Evry, France on May 30, 2000, approved the company's financial statements for 1999.
Satisfactory financial results in 1999 Arianespace posted sales of 975.9 million euros in 1999, compared with 1,086 million euros in 1998. These revenues were generated by nine Ariane 4 launches and one Ariane 5 launch.
Net income was 7.3 million euros, compared with 14 million euros in 1998.
Although operating income nearly tripled to 33.6 million euros, net income was down because of a change in the tax situation. Arianespace paid income taxes of 6 million euros in 1999, while it had a tax credit of 12.2 million euros in 1998.
The company will pay shareholders a dividend of 2.4 million euros for 1999. In 1998, Arianespace did not pay a dividend. In addition, Arianespace increased its reserves by 10.2 million Euros in 1999, building the reserves to 313 million euros -- strengthening its ability to deal with risks inherent in space business.
A very successful commercial debut for Ariane 5 Europe's new Ariane 5 launcher made its first commercial flight in 1999. This was an important milestone for Arianespace, which introduced its new heavy launch vehicle on the market well ahead of its competitors.
The Ariane 5's maiden commercial mission on December 10 lofted the European Space Agency's XMM scientific satellite -- a launch that occurred just one week after a successful Ariane 4 flight. This was followed in March 2000 by Arianespace's first Ariane 5 dual-payload launch, when Flight 128 orbited the AsiaStar and Insat 3B satellites.
In cooperation with its industrial and government partners, Arianespace has taken steps to consolidate the Ariane 5 program and increase its momentum.
The company is making the capital investments and other efforts needed to boost Ariane 5 production and launch rates to eight per year beginning in 2003. Furthermore, Arianespace is applying a proactive cost reduction effort while ensuring a continuation of the quality and reliability that have established the company's reputation.
Arianespace beefed up its role in Ariane 5 launcher development last year, with the creation of the Ariane Development Division -- jointly run with the French CNES space agency. Improvements to Ariane 5, especially new versions of the upper stage with cryogenic and re-ignitable engines, will give it a payload capacity to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) of 10,000 kg. in 2002, increasing to 12,000 kg. in 2005.
Maturity and operational flexibility Arianespace once again demonstrated its reliability and responsiveness in 1999. Despite a 4-month launch stand-down due to the unavailability of certain customer satellites, it carried out a total of 10 launches during the year -- placing 11 payloads into orbit. From September to December 1999, Arianespace performed seven launches, clearly illustrating its ability to step up the launch rate when needed to compensate for late satellite deliveries. Launches this past year were:
* Flight 116, February 26: ARABSAT 3A for Arabsat and SKYNET 4E for the British Ministry of Defence,
* Flight 117, April 2: INSAT 2E for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO),
* Flight 118, August 12: TELKOM 1 for operator PT Telekomukasi of Indonesia,
* Flight 120, September 4: KOREASAT 3, for Korea Telecom (Republic of Korea),
* Flight 121, September 25: TELSTAR 7 for American operator Space Systems/Loral,
* Flight 122, October 19: ORION 2, also for Space Systems/Loral,
* Flight 123, November 13: GE 4 for GE Americom (U.S.A.),
* Flight 124, December 3: HELIOS 1B, for the French Ministry of Defense.
* Flight 119, December 10: The first commercial launch of ARIANE 5, with the largest satellite ever built in Europe -- the European Space Agency's XMM X-ray observatory, and
* Flight 125, December 21, the third launch in a month: Galaxy XR for the world's leading private operator, PanAmSat Corp. (U.S.A).
With 51 successful launches in a row at the end of the year with completion of Flight 125, Ariane 4 set a new world record for commercial launch vehicles.
Sustained leadership in a perturbed global market The satellite and launch services markets both dropped significantly in 1999, with just 15 GTO satellite launch contracts up for tender -- compared with 21 in 1998. At the same time, a number of satellites were either unavailable for delivery or late, a situation which impacted the entire space transport sector.
However, Arianespace won 12 out of the 15 contracts up for grabs, confirming its position as the world leader.
Orders were balanced in terms of geographical distribution, with one in Europe, four in the Asia-Pacific region, four in the United States, one in the Middle East, and two for international organizations:
* EUROPE*STAR 1 - Alcatel Space and Europe*Star (international),
* BSAT-2A and BSAT-2B - Orbital Sciences Corporation (U.S.), for B-SAT Corp. of Japan
* NILESAT 102 - Astrium for Nilesat SA (Egypt),
* TELSTAR 7 - Loral Space Communications (U.S.)
* INSAT 3A - ISRO (India)
* GALAXY IVR - PanAmSat (U.S.)
* GE 3 and GE 4 - GE Americom (U.S.)
* NSS-7 - New Skies Satellites N.V. (international)
* ASTRA 2D - Hughes Space and Communications (U.S.) for Societe Europeenne des Satellites, Luxembourg, and
* OPTUS C1 - Cable and Wireless Optus Ltd. (Australia).
2000: Activity to date Since January 1, 2000, Arianespace has signed five new contracts:
* SPOT 5 - CNES (France)
* ISKY 1 and ISKY 2 - ISKY (U.S.)
* JCSAT- 8 - JSAT Corporation (Japan)
* ANIK F2 - Telesat (Canada).
As of May 30, 2000, Arianespace had signed a total of 211 contracts since its creation in March 1980. The current backlog stands at 40 satellites to be launched, worth about 3.26 billion euros.
Arianespace has carried out four successful launches since the beginning of the year: *Flight 126, January 24: GALAXY XR for PanAmSat (U.S.),
*Flight 127, February 17: SUPERBIRD 4 for Space Communications Corporation (Japan),
*Flight 128, March 21: first dual satellite launch by ARIANE 5, with ASIASTAR for WorldSpace (international) and INSAT 3B for ISRO (India),
*Flight 129, April 18: GALAXY IVR, also for PanAmSat (U.S.), the 54th consecutive successful launch of an Ariane 4.
Plans for a very busy second half of 2000
In a market plagued by a number of satellite-related problems, Arianespace brings three competitive advantages: flexibility, availability and anticipation. To make up for late satellite deliveries, the company is ready to accelerate the pace of operations -- resuming its launches in late July.
By the end of the year, three Ariane 5s and four or five Ariane 4s will orbit the following satellites, depending on availability:
*ANIK F1 (Telesat, Canada) *ASTRA 2D (SES, Luxembourg) *BRASILSAT B4 (Embratel, Brazil) *B SAT 2A (Orbital Sciences Corporation, U.S., for BSAT Corporation, Japan) *EURASIASAT (Alcatel Space for Eurasiasat, Turkey) *EUROPE*STAR (Alcatel Space for EuropeStar, international) *GE 7 and GE 8 (GE Americom, U.S.) *LDREX (NASDA, Japan) *N SAT 110 (Space Communications Corporation, SCC, Japan) *NILESAT 102 (Astrium for Nilesat SA, Egypt) *PAS 1R (PanAmSat, U.S.) *SKYNET 4F (Astrium for the British Ministry of Defence) *W1 (Eutelsat, Europe)
