London, UK: Inmarsat plc (LSE: ISAT.L), the leading provider of global mobile satellite services, today provided the following unaudited information for the half year ended 30 June 2016.
“We continue to compete aggressively and successfully in all of our core markets and to make solid progress with our long term GX and Aviation growth agendas.
Strong customer interest for GX is evident in all of our Business Units. In Maritime, we secured three major strategic deals which will bring over 5,000 vessels to GX over the next five years. In Government the take up of GX is gaining traction with rising revenues and strong operational interest. In Aviation, whilst closing cabin connectivity deals is taking longer than we expected, we have continued to make further progress, competing strongly in ongoing airline tenders for passenger connectivity services and the build out of our European Aviation Network is running to plan. We are currently conducting a worldwide live demonstration of our GX Aviation services to major airlines, which has been extremely well-received. I therefore continue to be confident in the long term growth prospects for the Group.
Nevertheless, our markets continue to be challenging and the outlook is becoming much harder to call as the macro economic environment worsens, new satellite capacity arrives driving prices lower, our new GX products launch and the Aviation passenger connectivity market becomes established.
I was also pleased to be able to report at the end of Q1 that Ligado Networks had opted to take the 30 MHz option under our Cooperation Agreement. This agreement is expected to provide several hundred million dollars of value to our shareholders over the next three years.
I am pleased to announce an increased interim dividend of 20.59 cents per share for 2016. With effect from this interim dividend, we will also be providing our shareholders with more choice through the option of a scrip dividend alternative.”
As discussed above, the outlook for our markets and the company has become much more difficult to forecast. Nevertheless, with the background of strong long term growth in the demand for satellite communications services, the market-leading global broadband capabilities of GX, our unique position within Aviation, the resilience and differentiation of our L-Band franchise, the power of our global distribution channel and our full service global mobile offer that together strongly position Inmarsat against our competitors, we remain confident that Inmarsat is well placed to grow over the medium and longer term. We therefore re-iterate our current guidance of:
The company will host a Capital Markets Day in London on the morning of Friday 7 October.
In May the company announced the appointment of Pip McCrostie as a non-executive director and a member of the company’s audit committee, to take effect from 1 September 2016. With her background as a senior leader within EY, Pip brings a wealth of experience in managing a global growth business and in advising enterprises across a wide range of strategic issues.
This announcement contains ‘forward-looking statements’ within the meaning of the US Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or industry results, to be materially different from those projected in the forward-looking statements. These factors include: general economic and business conditions; changes in technology; timing or delay in signing, commencement, implementation and performance or programmes, or the delivery of products or services under them; structural change in the satellite industry; relationships with customers; competition; and ability to attract personnel. You are cautioned not to rely on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this announcement. We undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement to reflect any change in our expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances.
While Inmarsat plc is the ultimate parent company of our group, our subsidiary Inmarsat Group Limited is required by the terms of our Senior Notes to report consolidated financial results on a quarterly basis. A copy of the resulting financial report for Inmarsat Group Limited will be available via the Investor Relations section of our website.
Inmarsat management will host a presentation of the results on Thursday 4 August at the company’s offices at 99 City Road, London EC1Y 1AX. The presentation will begin at 09.00 hrs BST (London time).
A live webcast of the presentation will also be available through our website at www.inmarsat.com/about-us/investor-relations/ and via a simultaneous conference call: +44 (0) 20 3427 1914; for US: +1877 280 1254, access Code 9179472.
[1] EBITDA is defined as profit before net financing costs, taxation, depreciation and amortisation, gains/losses on disposal of assets, impairment losses and share of profit of associates.
Morten Singleton
Tel: +44 (0)20 7728 1518
[email protected]
Chris McLaughlin/ Jonathan Sinnatt
Tel: +44 (0)20 7728 1935
[email protected]
[email protected]