ABS Launches Partnership With Satmex
Regional satellite operators Asia Broadcast Satellite [ABS] of Bermuda and Hong Kong and Satmex of Mexico are joining forces to purchase four Boeing-built telecommunications satellites using a revolutionary design in a $400 million partnership, industry officials said March 12.
According to a report in “Space News”, the agreement could catapult Bermuda’s ABS — a company that just five years ago had no more than a few million dollars in annual revenue — into a position as a global satellite operator with strongholds in South America in addition to Asia.
It could also help solidify Satmex, a company that exited US Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in mid-2011 with a $325 million loan, in its home region.
Aside from the union of two regional satellite operators, apparently backed by the financial muscle of private-equity investor Permira Advisers LLC, the deal is remarkable for the technology it plans to employ.
“Industry officials said ABS and Satmex have agreed to purchase together four satellites from Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems that use electric propulsion not only to maintain the satellites’ stably in orbit once at their designated orbital slots, but also for propelling the satellites into geostationary position from their transfer orbit,” said “Space News.”
Industry officials have said for years that all-electric satellites could mean reducing a satellite’s weight by 2,000 kilograms or more.
This would allow owners to select a much smaller, and less expensive, rocket, or alternatively to equip the satellite with more revenue-generating transponders.
ASA is headquartered at Mintflower Place on Par-La-Ville Road in Hamilton.
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