Tuesday 7 April 2015

Avanti (AVN) ... ready to launch in T minus, err

Tuesday 7th April 2015

As has kindly been pointed out to me, it would appear that the launch of Avanti's Hylas 3 satellite has been delayed until Q1 2017. This was reported nearly three weeks prior on 19th March 2015 at the link below: 

Arianespace and Airbus Defence and Space have reached an agreement for the launch of EDRS-C which is the second geostationary satellite of the SpaceDataHighway system. The launch is scheduled for first quarter in 2017. EDRS-C will increase the system capacity and provide redundancy for the SpaceDataHighway. Its orbital position will be 31 East.
Someone may wish to inform Avanti who are still reckoning on the satellite being ready for live commercial service in 2016. How this will be achieved I do not know.   

Avanti Communications still banking on 2016 for live commercial service?
Source: http://www.avantiplc.com/fleet-coverage/hylas-3 : 7th April 2015

Of course it's worth recalling that when Hylas 2 eventually got launched it took sometime to get up and running with regards to revenues. As Avanti finally reported in its 10 July 2013 year end trading update:
During the year the HYLAS 2 satellite launched.  Some customers started service later in the second half than expected and the average HYLAS 2 customer was invoiced for three months during the financial period. 
I say 'finally', as in its interim results reported six months prior on 12 February 2013, this was not altogether clear:
As a result of technical successes in the design and testing of HYLAS 2, we have been able to increase the amount of capacity available for sale from 9GHz to 11GHz.  Although HYLAS 2 launched some five months behind schedule, we were able to complete the networks testing and then activation and training of customers in a very short period.  As a result, pre-sales service providers were all live and invoiced by January with many new customers signed and activated in that period.   We now have customers in all beams, and some beams are almost fully sold with some customers prepared to pay deposits as well as several months' advance payment. 
Whether this delay is material for market forecasts and hence worth updating the market with I do not know. 

I'm short Avanti.

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