We believe that EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA measures are particularly important in a capital intensive industry such as ours, in which our current period depreciation is not a good indication of our current or future period capital expenditures. The cost to construct and launch a satellite and to build the related ground infrastructure may vary greatly from one satellite to another, depending on the satellite’s size, type and capabilities. Current depreciation expense is also not indicative of the revenue generating potential of the satellites.
We use EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA in conjunction with traditional U.S. GAAP operating performance measures as part of our overall assessment of our performance and we do not place undue reliance on these non-GAAP measures as our only measures of operating performance. EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA should not be considered as substitutes for other measures of financial performance reported in accordance with U.S. GAAP.
EBITDA excludes depreciation and amortization expense because these non-cash expenses reflect the impact of prior capital expenditure decisions which are not indicative of future capital expenditure requirements. EBITDA also excludes interest income, interest expense and income taxes because these items are associated with our capitalization and tax structures.
Adjusted EBITDA further adjusts EBITDA to exclude restructuring and other re-engineering charges related to specific restructuring and re-engineering actions because we do not believe these costs are indicative of the underlying operating performance of our business and our ongoing operations. The amount and timing of these restructuring and other re-engineering costs are dependent on the size, type and status of the specific actions undertaken as part of our restructuring or re-engineering plans.
Adjusted EBITDA also excludes joint venture losses, net, merger and integration costs, and the loss on early extinguishment of debt as these are non-core items that are not directly related to our primary operations.
Free Cash Flow. Free cash flow is defined as net cash flows provided by operating activities less Capital expenditures as disclosed in the Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows. Free cash flow is not a recognized term under U.S. GAAP and may not be defined similarly by other companies. Free cash flow should not be considered an alternative to “operating income (loss),” “net income (loss),” “net cash flows provided by (used in) operating activities” or any other measure determined in accordance with U.S. GAAP. Since free cash flow includes investments in operating assets, we believe this non-GAAP liquidity measure is useful in addition to the most comparable U.S. GAAP measure — “net cash flows provided by (used in) operating activities” because it provides information about the amount of cash generated before acquisitions of businesses that is then available to repay debt obligations, make investments, fund acquisitions, and for certain other activities. There are limitations to using non-U.S. GAAP financial measures, including the difficulty associated with comparing companies in different industries that use similar performance measures whose calculations may differ from ours.
Performance against key metrics:
| For the three months ended | |||||||||||||||||||
| March 31, | |||||||||||||||||||
| ($ in millions) | 2017 | 2016 | |||||||||||||||||
| Revenue | $ | 209.7 | $ | 175.4 | |||||||||||||||
| Net (loss) income | $ |
(2.2) |
|
$ | 8.6 | ||||||||||||||
| Net (loss) income margin |
(1.0) |
% |
4.9 | % | |||||||||||||||
| Adjusted EBITDA | $ | 95.5 | $ | 95.4 | |||||||||||||||
| Adjusted EBITDA margin | 45.5 | % | 54.4 | % | |||||||||||||||
| Net cash flows provided by operating activities | $ | 38.7 | $ | 59.5 | |||||||||||||||
| Free cash flow | $ | 17.8 | $ | 20.9 | |||||||||||||||
