Avanti order backlog grows
May 14, 2012
By Chris Forrester
Avanti Communications is the London-based satellite operator offering broadband and data capacity in Ka-band to Europe. A May 14th interim statement, unusually covering the four month trading to April 30th, says that revenues are in line with “[our] house broker estimates for the financial year to June 30th 2012”.
Unusually, Avanti did not issue any actual financials, other than to say that it has increased its order book backlog (by a useful £42.3 million, to a total of £213 million). Its statement also says that the “pipeline of potential sales” now stands at $529 million.
The market has looked favourably on Avanti’s shares just lately, which has seen its share price rise . Indeed, one broker on May 14th reiterated its ‘buy’ outlook on Avanti and with a price target of £6 a share. Another broker (Daniel Stewart & Co) has an even more bullish outlook on Avanti, again with a ‘buy’ recommendation and with a target valuation of an impressive £20.51 a share.
However, at least as far as early trading was concerned, the market saw some selling of Avanti stock which drove the price down by 8p to £3.20 but this is still well ahead of the past year’s ‘low’ point of £2.41 (although down on the past year’s ‘high’ of £4.36).
CEO David Williams reported that the upcoming launch of its second satellite Hylas-2 is ready for a launch in July, and that demand for capacity on board Hylas-2 is “very high”.