Satellite service concern Inmarsat plc reported total revenue of $684 mill for the first half of this year, compared with $683 mill in 1H11.

Profit before tax of $223 mill, compared with $255 mill in 1H11.

The company's Global MSS revenue came in at $367 mill, up by 1% on $362 mill reported in 1H11. EBIDTA was $381 mill, compared with $427 mill in 1H11.

Inmarsat said that it experienced strong revenue in the maritime sector, which was up by 13%. Over 30,000 FleetBroadband terminals have been installed and more than 65,000 active IsatPhone Pro terminals are in use.

The 2Q12 highlights for the Inmarsat Group included total revenue of $329 mill ($359 mill in 2Q11), while the Global MSS revenue of $189 mill, a rise of 4% from the $181 mill reported in 2Q11.

Total EBITDA was $176 mill in 2Q12, compared with $223 mill in 2Q12, while Inmarsat Solutions' revenue was $205 mill (2011 = $189 mill). MSS active terminals were up by 13% in 2Q12.

Rupert Pearce, Inmarsat's CEO, said, "The results for the first half and second quarter show that we have returned our core MSS business to growth, fuelled by continuing strong subscriber take up and the benefits of pricing initiatives. In light of on-going momentum in subscriber additions, we are making further progress towards meeting our expectations for the full year."

Growth in maritime data revenue resulted primarily from the impact of pricing initiatives, in particular as a result of the elimination (with effect from January) of volume discounts previously available for older services and the implementation of certain price changes (with effect from May) in relation to the FleetBroadband service, the company said.

During 1H12, Inmarsat added 4,305 FleetBroadband terminals, of which 2,295 were added during the second quarter. In addition, the migration of certain leasing business to the maritime sector also contributed to the maritime revenue growth.

Although customer migration from older maritime services continues to have a negative impact on the rate of revenue growth in the maritime sector, Inmarsat said that it believed that this effect is more than offset by usage increases seen from the FleetBroadband subscribers and by the impact of the price changes implemented.

Although maritime voice revenue was down year over year, this was largely due to the impact of voice price reductions implemented in April 2011 and the ongoing effect of voice to email substitution that is recorded as data revenues.

Interest in XpressLink service has continued to gain momentum following the appointment of a number of leading maritime communications specialists as dealers, which has increased market awareness.

Source: Tanker Operator