UK-based satellite communications service provider SatCom Global is in the process of launching its first commercial in-house offering, Horizon. The company, whose core business has been reselling MSS products for the Thuraya, Iridium, Inmarsat and VSAT…
UK-based satellite communications service provider SatCom Global is in the process of launching its first commercial in-house offering, Horizon. The company, whose core business has been reselling MSS products for the Thuraya, Iridium, Inmarsat and VSAT systems, has developed a suite of products offering VPN VoIP services simultaneously to multiple users via satellite.
Sandy Johnson, chief operating officer of SatCom Global, told SatelliteFinance that the company is currently trialling Horizon with its existing customers and is now looking to build a market out.
She argued that the product, which has a patent pending, was the result of the shift in customer demand from voice to data over the past few years. With the levels of bandwidth usage continuing to rapidly rise, Johnson said that customers, particularly maritime sat coms customers, are increasingly concerned over the cost of data consumption. This drove the company to develop a product that would minimise the use of data while offering simultaneous voice connections over standard satellite IP networks.
Having gained scale through a series of strategic acquisitions over the past few years, Johnson said that SatCom has now shifted its focus on developing new products in-house. “When we grew the group through acquisitions between 2005 and 2009, it was in order to put the group on the map both globally and vertically. We’ve reached a point when we are a global company and felt the time was right to consolidate and develop our own offering,” Johnson said.
SatCom undertook an IPO on London’s AIM exchange in July 2005 raising £500,000 through the placement of approximately 1.7 million ordinary shares and £3m through the issue of convertible unsecured loan stock. Proceeds were used to partially repay shareholder loans and to make acquisitions and in September of the same year the company snapped up Horizon Mobile Communications Co in order to bolster its presence in both Asia and the commercial shipping market.
This deal was followed by the purchase of The World Communication Center in July 2006, improving its exposure to Iridium as a service provider, and most recently in April 2008 completed the acquisition of SDN Global which enabled the company to move into VSAT broadband products.
In March 2010, SatCom delisted from the AIM exchange citing that its market capitalisation did not reflect its financial performance or prospects. As of February 26 2010, the company’s market cap was £8.9m compared to £15m when it first listed. This despite a substantial rise in turnover, profits and dividends. Johnson said that the poor valuation lay in part with the fact that the satellite communications industry gets compared to its terrestrial counterpart and therefore ignores the different markets and economies of scale involved.
She added that Horizon would be funded internally and that the company had no near term requirement to raise new financing.
As to developing new products, Johnson said that the company was focussed on rolling out Horizon for the moment. “This product (Horizon) has a long way to go. We see it as having much more scope in the future. For us Horizon will be our core product for years to come.”
