Inmarsat to speed up investment in Global Xpress

Satellite operator Inmarsat saw improved and more stable revenues from its core wholesale operations in the third revenue, leaving it well placed to hit this year's and next year's revenue targets.

Mobile satellite services (MSS) revenue at Inmarsat Global rose 3.3% in the three months ended September 30th to $186.7m from $180.7m the year before. However, the Other Income figure at Inmarsat Global, which includes the co-operation agreement with cash-strapped US telecoms network firm LightSquared, crashed to £11.7m from £64.5m the year before.

Inmarsat Solutions' revenue moved up 4.3% to £205.9m from £197.4m the previous year.

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In total, group revenue in the third quarter was down 10.5% year-on-year to £325.9m from £364.1m.

"The third quarter saw continued customer take-up of new services across our business sectors," revealed Rupert Peace, Chief Executive Officer of Inmarsat.

"In maritime, another very positive quarter was driven by the benefit of pricing initiatives earlier in the year and by the continuing strong take-up of FleetBroadband. Despite the headwinds we face from the on-going withdrawal from Afghanistan, results for our land mobile business improved with growth from IsatPhone Pro and positive underlying data growth due mainly to new BGAN subscribers," he added.

The group's XpressLink service continues to gain traction in the market and is leading the company to feel increasingly confident about the launch of Global Xpress, the superfast Ka band broadband network, next year. As a result, Inmarsat has decided for 2013 to increase its level of investment in certain L-band opportunities and bring forward some costs for Global Xpress that will provide for a more advanced state of readiness for service launch.

At the end of September, the Inmarsat group had net borrowings of $1,423.0m, made up of cash and cash equivalents of $446.8m and total borrowings of $1,869.8m. Including cash and available but undrawn borrowing facilities, the group had total available liquidity of $1,527.5m.