Satellite communications company Inmarsat has an exciting summer ahead of it, after sealing several important distribution deals for its IsatPhone Pro. It has now secured 11 partners covering all major geographies, including AST and China Telecom.
This pioneering technology will allow mobile phones to be used on planes and in far flung corners of the world where normal mobiles cannot work, which is particularly useful for industries such as oil and gas and mining. The company made the first call using this technology in January and further testing suggests it remains on track for its launch in June.
Its core business continued growing nicely, too. Satellite revenues climbed 10 per cent to $695m (£465m), driven by strong sales of services including its Swift 64 high-speed data service for aircraft and its maritime solutions, which included a new FleetBroadband service aimed at smaller vessels. However, overall growth was held back by a sluggish performance from Stratos, the remote telco solutions supplier bought in April 2009. Its sales climbed 1 per cent to $644m as broadband contracts expired.
Underlying earnings climbed 27 per cent to 38¢, and brokers expect adjusted pre-tax profits of $280m in 2010 (from $211m in 2009), implying EPS of 40¢.
INMARSAT (ISAT) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 760p | MARKET VALUE: | £3.49bn | |
| TOUCH: | 759-760p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 787p | 413p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 2.9% | PE RATIO: | 34 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 211¢* | NET DEBT: | 136% | |
| Year to 31 Dec | Turnover ($m) | Pre-tax profit ($m) | Earnings per share (¢) | Dividend per share (¢) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | 491 | 95.5 | 17.0 | 16.4 |
| 2006 | 500 | 89.8 | 28.0 | 26.7 |
| 2007 | 577 | 125 | 21.0 | 28.9 |
| 2008 | 997 | 194 | 78.0 | 30.3 |
| 2009 | 1038 | 197 | 33.0 | 33.4 |
| % change | +4 | +2 | -58 | +10 |
Ex-div: 17 Mar Payment: 01 Apr *Includes intangible assets of $1.02bn, or 222¢ per share £1=$1.49 | ||||
