Yahsat’s satellite launch set to boost firm’s performance

The satellite company Yahsat expects to launch its third satellite later this year as it seeks to boost its financial performance after challenging conditions in 2015 and last year, Farhad Khan, the company’s chief commercial officer, said on Wednesday.

"The sentiment we've picking up on for 2017 going on into 2018 is a lot more positive compared with where we were in 2015 and 2016," Mr Khan told The National on the sidelines of Dubai's Cabsat exhibition.

Revenue in the coming years would be driven by the expansion of Yahsat’s footprint into Africa and Brazil with the launch of the company’s third satellite, Yah 3, later this year.

“We’re definitely enhancing our revenue position this year and going into 2018 through to 2021,” said Mr Khan. “In 2017 we’ll start to see our Ebitda [earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation] improving; it may not change substantially but we do see a healthy growth in margins through to 2021.”

Yahsat, a unit of Abu Dhabi investment company Mubadala Development, does not disclose full financial results. Mubadala’s results for the first half of last year showed a 15 per cent year-on-year fall in satellite capacity leasing revenue to Dh547.8 million from Dh642.1m in the first half of 2015.

Yahsat on Wednesday announced an agreement at Cabsat with UAE communications solutions company X SAT FZE for the use of Ka-band capacity on its soon-to-be launched satellite. The value of the deal was not disclosed.

Under the partnership’s terms, X SAT FZE, based in Jebel Ali, will make use of Yahsat’s satellite broadband service Yahclick’s virtual network operator (VNO) service to offer satellite based connectivity services in African markets. It follows similar deals last year with fellow satellite service providers Talia and Eutelsat.

“YahClick’s VNO service was the ideal solution,” said Gleb Larionov, X SAT FZE’s managing director. “Over the length of this agreement, we will utilise the benefits of high-speed capacity over Ka-band via Yahsat’s satellite fleet.”

The announcement came a day after Yahsat’s broadcast subsidiary, Yahlive, announced the launch of a TV service in the UAE and Saudi Arabia targeting Asian audiences.

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