The bulk of satellite insurance tenders at the turn of the year came from Asia as a number of projects near launch across the region. Tenders came from Indonesia’s Telkom and BRI, Thailand’s Thaicom and Taiwan’s National Space Organization.
The bulk of satellite insurance tenders at the turn of the year came from Asia as a number of projects near launch across the region.
SatelliteFinance understands that Marsh has won two of the four tenders that were recently issued to the market, picking up Telkom-3s for Indonesia’s Telkom and Thaicom-6 for Thailand’s Thaicom.
The tender for Telkom-3S, which will replace a communications satellite the operator lost in a 2012 rocket crash, was a reinsurance deal originally secured by local firm Jasindo. Arianespace is set to launch the spacecraft late this year.
The Thaicom-6 communications bird was launched successfully in what was SpaceX’s second geosynchronous transfer mission at the start of 2014, and its inorbit insurance was up for renewal.
Two other tenders from Asia were still up for proposals as SatelliteFinance went to press: One for Indonesian bank BRI’s first communications satellite; and another for an imaging spacecraft for Taiwan’s National Space Organization (NSPO).
BRI’s satellite, BRIsat, is being built by US-based Space Systems Loral and is due to be launched by Arianespace in May 2016.
The manufacturing contract saw BRI become the first bank in the world to order a communications satellite. It will use the bird to provide secure banking communications to more than 9,800 branches, over 100,000 electronic channel outlets, and over 50 million customers across the Indonesian archipelago.
BRIsat will be placed at 150.5E, where Indonesian telco Indosat’s ageing Palapa-C2 is located. Before the local government gave the rights to that orbital slot to BRI, Indonesia’s largest bank, Indosat had ordered a satellite called Palapa-E from Orbital Sciences (now Orbital ATK) of the US to replace it. The order was subsequently scrapped.
In early 2015, Indosat CEO Alexander Rusli said it was studying a US$200m plan for a new satellite to replace its Palapa D bird at 113E.
Responding to SatelliteFinance questions last week, a spokesman said it was still assessing its satellite business and that no decision had been made about replacing Palapa D, which is set to expire in 2020.
“[We are] evaluating every option available to enhance the business,” he added.
Neither company was able to comment on the insurance tender speculation.
