Avanti Communications' full-year loss narrows as revenue grows

(ShareCast News) - Avanti Communications posted a slightly narrower pre-tax loss for the year ending 30 June as revenue grew.The company, which provides satellite data communications services, reported a loss of $73.3m, narrower than the $87.7m loss last year, as revenue rose 30% year-on-year to $85.2m.Avanti said revenue benefitted from a one-off capacity sale of the Artemis service provider, exceptional sales of equipment for an infrastructure project in the prior year and the sale of spectrum in the 2015 financial year.Looking ahead, the company said the continuing business growth rate seen during 2015 is expected to continue in the new financial year. In addition, it expects core recurring revenue growth to again be augmented with non-recurring revenue.Avanti noted that it has a largely fixed cash cost base. It said there will be a modest increase in costs in 2016 as further investments are made in sales and marketing and ground operations ahead of the launches of HYLAS 3 and HYLAS 4 satellites.The company said it has now invested over $1.2bn in developing a business that can meet the demand for affordable connectivity in high-growth markets."Together with the investments that we will make over the next two years, this will create a company with the potential to generate over $500m of EBITDA once the fleet is filled."At 1540 BST, shares in Avanti were down 1% at 215.12p.