London-based speciality satellite operator Avanti says that it is finding trading in Africa “tough” and not helped by currency fluctuations and depreciations coming off the slump in commodity prices. CEO David Williams told the Satellite Finance Network conference in London last week of “a little bit of evidence of currency prices stabilising and commodities rising.”

Williams stressed that Kenya has shown good economic growth, and was a “great market” for Avanti, and that its planned launch of a new satellite, Hylas-4, would be serving this market next year. He told delegates that Hylas-4 should be available for delivery from its manufacturers towards the end of June this year.

However, it seems that Hylas-3, a service that is being carried as a portion of a European Space Agency (ESA) satellite, looks like it will not now be ready for entry into service until later this year. Williams said that at the moment, ESA is declaring the satellite’s availability for this year.

Hylas-3 was originally expected to be launched during 2016.

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