Advanced Television

Inmarsat wins $50m arbitration

June 28, 2019

By Chris Forrester

Speciality satellite services company RigNet, based in Houston, Texas, says it has reached a settlement with Inmarsat over a disputed contract claim. RigNet supplies maritime and terrestrial connectivity.

Inmarsat filed the arbitration with the International Centre for Dispute Resolution in October 2016 concerning a January 2014 ‘take or pay’ agreement to purchase up to $65 million, under certain conditions, of Inmarsat GX satellite capacity from Inmarsat over several years.  Phase I of the arbitration concerned only whether RigNet’s take or pay obligation ever commenced under the agreement and resulted in an interim award to Inmarsat of $50.8 million.  Phase II of the arbitration was to address RigNet’s counterclaims against Inmarsat on a variety of subjects, as well as Inmarsat’s additional claims and for interest and attorneys’ fees.

The arbitration claim was settled in Inmarsat’s favour. RigNet will pay Inmarsat $45 million immediately, $5 million in the third quarter of 2019, and $750,000 in the third quarter of 2020.

“We are glad to put this matter behind us,” said Rignet in a statement. “While we are disappointed in the [arbitration] panel’s Phase I findings that a take or pay obligation under our January 2014 agreement had commenced, we believe that settling this matter reduces risk for our shareholders, customers, and employees.”

“We were able avoid additional costs related to the arbitration and to secure value for our counterclaims which offsets Inmarsat’s additional claims, as well as their claims for interest and attorneys’ fees,” said Steven Pickett, RigNet’s CEO/President. “Now we can return 100 per cent of our focus to our ongoing business operations as we continue to deliver best-in-class managed communications, real-time machine learning, and cybersecurity solutions to our global customers.”

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