In its third quarter update to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), SAS said it had focused on signing further reseller agreements to deepen its potential sales.
It’s continuing to work on building a pipeline of commercial contracts as it advances towards the commercial delivery of its global nanosatellite constellation.
SAS said it is continuing to work towards finalising its refinancing and corporate restructure.
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SAS incorporated in the UK in 2015 and listed on the ASX in May 2016.
The company is based in Perth and is well advanced in plans for what it calls the Pearls constellation of as many as 200 nanosatellites in equatorial orbit, providing low-cost communications, data and internet services for markets in Africa, South America and Asia.
SAS is proposing an additional satellite constellation, allowing full global coverage, including Australia, Russia, China, South Africa, Argentina and Canada. The company has more than 50 agreements in place for use of its services.
In 2017, SAS Global launched three prototype satellites on an Indian rocket to test its technology.
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SAS has experienced its fair share of problems, particularly attaining the cash needed to advance its operations.
It’s expecting to see initial space revenues in fourth quarter 2020, following launch of first commercial satellites and the roll-out of ground terminals.
The report said it had embarked on a series of activities in third quarter to grow sales opportunities to underpin strategic expansion from equatorial to global constellation coverage for its nanosatellite program.
One new reseller agreement is with D2U Network Solutions, a value-added distributor specialising in IoT and data management that will help promote SAS’ solutions in Oceania and the Pacific islands through established distribution channels such as carriers, internet service providers, wireless integrators and enterprise partners.
The second is with Mexico-based provider RED52, which will see both companies collaborate on providing IoT connectivity for various projects in Costa Rica and Panama for potential customers across the resources and banking sectors.
SAS’ financial position is improving. In September, SAS secured a US$550,000 short-term convertible loan agreement between its UK subsidiary and third-party finance provider CSS Alpha (BVI) Limited.
In October 2019, SAS received £1,425,382 ($2.6 million) from the UK tax authority, HMRC, in relation to a R&D tax claim submitted by SAS’ UK subsidiary.
“These funds provide Sky and Space with additional working capital for its near-term commercial objectives,” SAS said.
The company is also in talks with the European Space Agency (ESA) about a possible partnership agreement. ESA invited SAS representatives to speak at the UK Space conference in Newport.
That focused on companies developing space-enabled seamless 5G connectivity networks to develop ubiquitous services.
“The company and ESA are in a continuous discussion to further explore such partnership agreement, which, subject to the support of UK delegation to ESA, could provide coalition-funding for the company development and deployment effort,” it said.
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