28th Sep 2018 10:07
LONDON (Alliance News) - Avanti Communications Group PLC on Friday reported a swing to interim profit as revenue grew, with the company looking to put a "difficult" eighteen months behind it.
Revenue for the six months to June 30 grew 23% to USD29.9 million from USD24.3 million a year ago, as the company swung to a pretax profit of USD245.6 million from a USD15.1 million loss.
In the prior period, Avanti booked USD114.1 million in satellite impairments, while the recently ended period saw Avanti benefit from a USD254.9 million exceptional gain on a debt for equity swap.
The period was "dominated" by three key events for Avanti, namely restructuring of its balance sheet, the successful launch of Hylas 4, and the arrival of Kyle Whitehill as chief executive.
"The restructuring of the balance sheet and the launch of HYLAS 4 has given Avanti the platform for growth. This is supported by the recently announced contract wins with Comsat and Viasat and develops our Government and wholesale strategy," said Whitehill.
HYLAS 4 was successfully launched by Arianespace in April while HYLAS 3, a co-payload condosat, is expected to launch in the middle of 2019.
While the past eighteen months have been "difficult" from a financial perspective, Avanti said many issues are now behind it, and it is now firmly focused on delivering recurring core bandwidth revenue, with the aim of increasing this by a double-digit percentage year-on-year.
"The interest in HYLAS 4 evidenced by the initial contracts with Viasat and Comsat, gives us confidence that we will deliver solid progress in utilising the capacity of our fleet over the coming months," said Avanti.
Shares in the satellite operator were down 2.8% at 4.80 pence on Friday.
Related Shares:
AVN.L