Inmarsat stays on course for a positive year
SATELLITE company Inmarsat yesterday said trading had been “consistent with trends” in the three months to October, and that the firm was performing in line with full-year expectations.
The FTSE 250 company, which owns a fleet of ten satellites serving the maritime, aviation and land sectors, said that performance had been positive in its key businesses. However, shares fell around 2.5 per cent, with the announcement less positive than the firm’s six-month earnings report two months ago.
In August, Inmarsat had reported a 12.7 per cent increase in revenues from its maritime business, signalling a turnaround for the business and causing shares to rise by almost 10 per cent, although pre-tax profit had fallen from $255m (£159m) to $222m in the period due to a number of investments.
The firm said yesterday that the maritime business had continued to perform well, with 2,100 new terminals added to its FleetBroadband network in the period, and a number of new contracts for its XpressLink satellite broadband service signed.
Performance across the company’s other business sectors and in the Solutions business had also been positive, the company’s chief executive officer Rupert Pearce said.
“Trading during the third quarter has been consistent with trends reported for the second quarter and with our guidance for the full year,” Pearce added.
Yesterday’s news follows Monday’s tie-up with computing giant Cisco, which will enable Inmarsat to expand its XpressLink service.
Inmarsat will report third quarter results on 5 November.