Sats ‘remains on track to restoring profitability’ after 3 years of losses
In-flight caterer and ground handler Sats on Dec 5 said it remains on track to restore profitability, a week after it filed its notice of three consecutive years of losses.
The group was responding to media articles detailing the notice, its US$3 billion ($4 billion) multi-currency debt issuance programme and the uncommitted bilateral facilities it has obtained.
In its clarification, Sats said its financial performance reported over the past three years reflects the unprecedented impact of Covid-19 on the group’s business.
The company wished to assure investors that it remains on track to restoring profitability on the back of global travel recovery, new contract wins, operational efficiencies and synergies achieved through the integration with Worldwide Flight Services (WFS).
It reiterated that there is no risk of it being placed on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) watch list, as its six-month average daily market capitalisation stood at $3.9 billion.
Based on SGX listing rules, mainboard-listed companies will be placed on the watch list if they record pre-tax losses for the three latest consecutive financial years and fail to maintain an average daily market cap of at least $40 million over the last six months.
As for its funding programmes, the group said its $3 billion multi-currency debt issuance programme will provide flexibility for the group to access global debt markets to optimise its borrowing costs through appropriate maturity tenure.
It noted that it continues to generate positive net operating cash flow on the back of the global travel recovery and good progress on its integration with WFS.
Its newly obtained uncommitted bilateral facilities were also the result of the group restructuring WFS’ existing revolving credit facilities, which had certain restrictive covenants in place.
Sats had restructured these facilities with ING Bank, MUFG Bank, Bank of America and HSBC to remove these restrictive covenants and provide the group with greater funding flexibility, the group said.
The group said it will continue to maintain a prudent financial management strategy, as well as focus on delivering stable financial performance and increasing shareholder value.
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