Mobile Satellite Communications Handbook, 2nd Edition

Chapter 6INMARSAT plc

6.1 Introduction to INMARSAT plc

As explained in Chapter 5, by 1998 a consensus had developed that INMARSAT (as explained earlier, for purposes of readability, in this book, the term INMARSAT is used to describe the intergovernmental organization (IGO) that existed between 1979 and 1998 and Inmarsat is also used to describe the shareholder-owned business that began in 1999) should rapidly change from an IGO into a shareholder-owned business. Such rapid change was neither universally supported nor without controversy; it represented one of the most complex transformations of a multilateral organization ever undertaken. Today, Inmarsat plc. is a London-based publicly traded corporation that is listed on the London Stock Exchange. Like many international businesses, Inmarsat has expanded through acquisitions of other companies and, for the most part, the acquired companies have been rebranded so that they all operate under the Inmarsat brand name.

In addition, like many companies that have made international acquisitions, Inmarsat operates through a variety of legal subsidiaries (Inmarsat Group, Ltd., Inmarsat Finance plc., Inmarsat Investment Ltd., Inmarsat Ventures Ltd., Inmarsat Global Ltd., etc.) which have been created for financing, accounting, tax, or legal reasons. In this chapter, since all of these legal subsidiaries are eventually owned by Inmarsat plc. and subject to restructuring at any time, we ignore them and treat Inmarsat as a single business. ...