Inmarsat plc Interim Management Statement
5 November 2012.
Inmarsat plc provided the following
information for the three months ended 30 September 2012.
Rupert Pearce, Inmarsat’s Chief Executive
Officer, said, “The third quarter saw continued customer take-up of new
services across our business sectors. 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.
In addition, we saw momentum in the take-up of
our XpressLink service which is beginning to capture new market share and
leads us to feel increasingly confident about the launch of Global Xpress.
In view of these developments we have decided for 2013 to increase our 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. Overall, the third quarter
continues to demonstrate improved and more stable revenues from our core
wholesale operations and positions us well, despite the challenging
macro-economic environment, to deliver revenues over this year and next
within our current target.”
Inmarsat plc
|
Three months ended
30 September
|
Increase/ (decrease)
|
(US$ in millions)
|
2012
|
2011
|
Inmarsat Global – MSS revenue
|
186.7
|
180.7
|
3.3%
|
Inmarsat Global – Other Income (including
LightSquared)
|
11.7
|
64.5
|
(81.9%)
|
Inmarsat Solutions
|
205.9
|
197.4
|
4.3%
|
|
404.3
|
442.6
|
(8.7%)
|
Intercompany eliminations and adjustments
|
(78.4)
|
(78.5)
|
|
Total revenue
|
325.9
|
364.1
|
(10.5%)
|
Inmarsat Global
|
Three months ended
30 September
|
Increase/ (decrease)
|
(US$ in millions)
|
2012
|
2011
|
Maritime voice services
|
19.6
|
21.6
|
(9.3%)
|
Maritime data services
|
85.4
|
68.0
|
25.6%
|
Total maritime sector
|
105.0
|
89.6
|
17.2%
|
Land mobile voice services
|
3.7
|
2.2
|
68.2%
|
Land mobile data services
|
30.6
|
34.8
|
(12.1%)
|
Total land mobile sector
|
34.3
|
37.0
|
(7.3%)
|
Aviation sector
|
24.3
|
26.6
|
(8.6%)
|
Leasing
|
23.1
|
27.5
|
(16.0%)
|
Total MSS revenue
|
186.7
|
180.7
|
3.3%
|
Other income (including LightSquared)
|
11.7
|
64.5
|
(81.9%)
|
Total revenue
|
198.4
|
245.2
|
(19.1%)
|
Growth in maritime data revenue resulted
primarily from the impact of pricing initiatives implemented in the first
half of 2012. During the third quarter we added 2,128 FleetBroadband
terminals and ended the quarter with an installed base of over 32,000 active
FleetBroadband terminals. On-going decline in maritime voice revenue is due
to a structural shift to data services through increasing email substitution
and take up of VOIP applications, offset to a limited extent by organic
voice growth opportunities from crew services and smaller vessels.
On-going customer migration to FleetBroadband
from our older maritime services will have a continuing negative impact on
our rate of revenue growth in the maritime sector because the cost of
service is typically lower than for the services being replaced. Generally,
we expect this impact to be offset by on-going usage increases and net new
subscriber growth.
During the quarter, take up of XpressLink, our
hybrid L and Ku-band maritime service, was also encouraging and a number of
new contracts were signed and will begin installation over the coming
months. At the end of the quarter we had an installed base of 1,150 ships
using our VSAT service, including more than 250 ships using XpressLink.
In our land mobile sector, the year-over-year
decline in revenue for data services is due to reduced revenue from
government users in Afghanistan and other material event-related revenues
recorded the third quarter 2011. We estimate that Afghanistan and events in
North Africa in the third quarter of 2011 contributed $8.1m more revenue
year-over-year, compared to the third quarter 2012. While revenue from North
Africa has now largely normalised, our annualised land mobile revenue from
Afghanistan remains material and is expected to decline further and
therefore impact performance in future periods. Underlying growth in BGAN
revenues excluding Afghanistan and other events was positive with growth in
active terminals coupled with steady ARPUs.
Our IsatPhone Pro service was the main driver
behind strong growth in land voice revenue. During the third quarter we
recorded over 6,000 net subscriber additions and we ended the quarter with a
total base of over 71,000 active IsatPhone Pro terminals.
Aviation revenue for the third quarter was down
year-over-year when compared to an unusually strong third quarter in 2011
and was driven by lower Swift 64 revenue mainly due to lower military and
government usage in the quarter. SwiftBroadband continued to see strong
take-up and revenue growth. The third quarter of 2012 was a record for
SwiftBroadband additions, many of which are being installed to support
in-flight passenger services. The take-up of SwiftBroadband continues to
expand our customer base and reduces our dependence on government aviation
business.
Leasing was in line with expectations for the
third quarter. The decline in Other Income relates primarily to the reduced
revenue contribution from our Cooperation Agreement with LightSquared and
this was also the primary cause of the overall fall in Inmarsat Global
revenue for the third quarter.
Inmarsat Solutions
|
Three months ended
30 September
|
Increase/ (decrease)
|
(US$ in millions)
|
2012
|
2011
|
Inmarsat MSS
|
104.1
|
107.4
|
(3.1%)
|
Broadband and Other MSS
|
101.8
|
90.0
|
13.1%
|
Total revenue
|
205.9
|
197.4
|
4.3%
|
Lower Inmarsat MSS revenue at the Inmarsat
Solutions level was driven primarily by lower revenue from Afghanistan and
lower event-related revenue year-over-year. Growth in Broadband and Other
MSS was primarily due to increased revenue from our US Government business
unit in relation to managed network services and equipment sales.
Liquidity
At 30 September 2012, the Inmarsat plc 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.
We remain fully funded as to all our capital needs for the foreseeable
future.
Our Financial Reports
Inmarsat Group Limited, our wholly-owned
subsidiary, today reported unaudited consolidated financial results for the
three months ended 30 September 2012. A copy of the full financial report
for Inmarsat Group Limited can be accessed via the investor relations
section of our website.
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