Inmarsat full year profits take off by 9.5%

Satellite communications operator Inmarsat said full year earnings rose 9.5% to $795m, boosted by strong performances in its government and aviation units, which were moderately offset by weaker maritime revenues.

Revenues rose 4.3% to $1.3bn and the final dividend was lifted by 5% to 33.37 cents a share.

“We remain confident about the medium to long term outlook for the business,” Inmarsat said.

However it added that future prospects continued to be “difficult to predict” as there was “sustained pressure on customer expenditure, increasing competition and the arrival of new satellite capacity in some of our markets".

“Consequently, there is expected to be an unusually wide range of possible outcomes for the performance of the business in 2017 and 2018.”

Inmarsat forecast revenue of $1.2bn-$1.3bn in 2017 and $1.3bn to $1.5bn in 2018.