Advanced Television

Hong Kong’s APT Satellite seeks partners

August 28, 2018

By Chris Forrester

APT Satellite, which operates the Apstar fleet of satellites, says it is prepared to look for partners as well as new orbital slots in order to expand its coverage, in particular for its upcoming Apstar-6D craft launching in 2019.

APT’s fleet covers more than 75 per cent of the planet’s population, and supply video and data traffic to Asia, Australia, Mid-East, Africa, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region including New Zealand and Hawaii.

Huang Baoshong, APT’s EVP is on record as saying that its sister company, APT Mobile Satcom (in which it holds a 30 per cent stake) is expanding services in China, and could be further advanced to a more global role.

APT Satellite Holdings is incorporated in Bermuda and on August 20th unveiled its interim half-year results (to June 30th) with revenues up 4.1 per cent, and a 15.5 per cent increase in profits to HK$279.6 million.

Transponder utilisation is 73.1 per cent (down from 75.9 per cent) and its EBITDA margin was 84 per cent for 1H/2018.

APT has suffered a problem on its Apstar 6 craft (134 deg East), and is making an insurance claim because of an anomaly on one of its solar arrays.

It has two upcoming satellites: Apstar-5C will launch later this year, while Apstar-6D will launch later in 2019.

The company recognised that trading is “fierce” saying “During the first half of 2018, facing the unfavourable market conditions of the oversupply in the global satellite transponder market and the decline in the transponder lease price, the Group actively explores new markets and new businesses.”

Categories: Articles, Broadcast, Business, DTH/Satellite