[Satellite TODAY Insider 03-31-11] Inmarsat has agreed to pay about $160 million to acquire Ship Equip, a provider of VSAT maritime communications services to the shipping, offshore oil and gas and fishing markets.
    Jim Parm, CEO of Inmarsat subsidiary Stratos, told Satellite TODAY Insider that the deal, announced March 31, was initiated by Inmarsat after it identified Ship Equip as a potential growth complement to Inmarsat’s existing maritime business.
    Ship Equip is "successful today in addressing maritime market opportunities that Inmarsat does not serve at L-band. These are some of the very markets at the center of our plans for Global Xpress. With the acquisition of Ship Equip we believe we will be better positioned to deliver superior returns on our investment in the Global Xpress program," Parm said. "Ship Equip also has an installed and growing base of vessels that will migrate to our Ka-band Global Xpress service and can then set the innovation standard that other current users of Ku-band maritime VSAT will want to follow. This is a critical advantage when bringing a wholly new service into an otherwise conservative industry."
    Ship Equip had an installed base of more than 850 vessels at the end of 2010, generating revenues of $56 million. Inmarsat is using existing liquidity to fund the transaction, which is expected to close in a matter of weeks. The Inmarsat acquisition gives Ship Equip access to the Inmarsat-5 constellation of Ka-band spacecraft, which are scheduled to be on-orbit by the end of 2014.
    Inmarsat Senior Director of Maritime Services James Collett told Satellite TODAY Insider that the acquisition will help generate continued strong demand for the operator’s FleetBroadband and L-band maritime services during the next few years.
    "Having early adopters for Global Xpress will be a critical tool to gaining wider market acceptance quickly. Ship Equip will ensure we will ramp the migration at a much faster rate and therefore deliver superior returns from the investment," Collett said. "Market estimates indicate that at the end of 2010 there were approximately 8,500 maritime VSAT terminals installed. Ship Equip added approximately 150 VSAT terminals in 2010, representing growth in their installed base of around 20 percent. We estimate this to be ahead of the wider VSAT market growth. Market estimates suggest that around 1,000 maritime VSAT terminals were added in 2010, so Ship Equip is expanding its market share."

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