Harbinger Capital, the American hedge fund investor that earlier this week suspended takeover talks with Inmarsat, now says it intends to make an offer for the satellite group.

It plans to combine the company with its SkyTerra business. Harbinger, owns 48% of SkyTerra and is also Inmarsat's biggest shareholder.

Harbinger had left the way open to make a bid even as talks were shelved. The deal faces considerable regulatory hurdles and Harbinger today acknowledged approval was far from certain.

It said the terms of the deal would be announced if there were a satisfactory outcome to the regulatory approvals process. The bid for the satellite company is expected to be worth at least £2.4 billion.

The hedge fund said that talks with Inmarsat were dropped earlier because "of the lengthy process [of regulatory approval] Harbinger did not consider it appropriate to make a firm offer".

It expects the process to take up to 18 months to get the green light from regulators and would then re-enter discussions with Inmarsat over terms.

Harbinger, run by former Barclays Capital trader Philip Falcone, holds 28.2% of Inmarsat. The hedge fund believes the satellite industry has a bright future but is also attracted by the role Inmarsat might play in a satellite based US mobile phone network through SkyTerra.

SkyTerra is the parent company of Mobile Satellite Ventures, which with its Canadian partner, delivers mobile wireless voice and data services primarily for public safety, security and asset tracking in the US and Canada.

Harbinger said that the combination of SkyTerra and Inmarsat presented an excellent opportunity to move towards comprehensive wireless coverage of the US and Canada "through an integrated satellite-terrestrial communications network".