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AsiaSat

Hong Kong-based commercial operator of communications satellites

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Source updated June 14, 2026

Asia Satellite Telecommunications Company Limited (AsiaSat) is a Hong Kong-based commercial operator of communications satellites founded in 1988. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Asia Satellite Telecommunications Holdings Limited (AsiaSat Holdings), which is incorporated in Bermuda.

AsiaSat Holdings is jointly owned by Chinese state-owned CITIC Limited and private equity fund The Carlyle Group L.P. indirectly. It had a market capitalisation of HK$2 billion on 30 November 2018. It was a red chip company of the stock exchange. On 23 August 2019, the take private proposal scheme was approved by AsiaSat Holdings' public shareholders, followed by the approval of the Bermuda Court on 3 September 2019, whereupon The company became a private wholly owned subsidiary of Bowenvale Limited, a joint venture of CITIC and Carlyle. The listing of the company's shares was withdrawn from the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong on 5 September 2019.

01History

In September 2017, AsiaSat 9, AsiaSat's latest satellite built by Space Systems/Loral was successfully launched and replaced AsiaSat 4 at 122° East.

AsiaSat owns and operates seven satellites, including AsiaSat 3S, AsiaSat 4, AsiaSat 5, AsiaSat 6, AsiaSat 7, AsiaSat 8 and the new AsiaSat 9.

02Shareholders

As of 31 December 2017, the direct parent company, Bowenvale Limited, owned 74.43% shares; Bowenvale was jointly owned by CITIC Limited and The Carlyle Group LP in a 50-50 ratio. Standard Life Aberdeen plc was the second largest shareholder for 5.36%. In May 2018, the ratio owned by Standard Life Aberdeen had decreased to 4.99%. In November 2018, another private equity firm International Value Advisers owned 6.12% shares of AsiaSat.

On 3 September 2019, following the approval of the privatisation plan by public shareholders, Asia Satellite Telecommunications Holdings Limited became a privately wholly owned subsidiary of Bowenvale Limited, which is now jointly owned by CITIC Group and Carlyle Asia Partners IV, L.P.

03Launch history and future plans

This is a list of satellites owned and operated by AsiaSat.

AsiaSat satellites
Satellite	Launch Date (UTC)	Rocket	Launch Site	Contractor	Longitude	Status	Notes	Ref.
AsiaSat 1	7 Apr 1990	Long March 3	Xichang, LC-3	CASC		Decommissioned	Launched as Westar 6 on Space Shuttle mission STS-41B, became stranded in orbit, was retrieved by Space Shuttle mission STS-51A in November 1984, sold to AsiaSat.
AsiaSat 2	28 Nov 1995	Long March 2E	Xichang, LC-2	CASC	100.5° East	Decommissioned
AsiaSat 3	24 Dec 1997	Proton-K / DM-2M	Baikonur, Site 81/23	ILS	105.5° East (intended) 158° West (1998-1999) 62° West (1999-2002)	Decommissioned	Transferred to Hughes Global Services (HGS)
AsiaSat 3S	21 Mar 1999	Proton-K / DM-2M	Baikonur, Site 81/23	ILS	147.5° East	Decommissioned	Replaced AsiaSat 1 on 8 May 1999 and was replaced by AsiaSat 7
AsiaSat 4	12 Apr 2003	Atlas IIIB	Cape Canaveral, LC-36B	ILS	Relocated to a designated orbital position in November 2017	In Service
AsiaSat 5	11 Aug 2009	Proton-M / Briz-M	Baikonur, Site 200/39	Khrunichev	100.5° East	In Service	A replacement satellite for AsiaSat 2
AsiaSat 6 / Thaicom 7	7 Sep 2014	Falcon 9 v1.1	Cape Canaveral, SLC-40	SpaceX	120° East	In Service
AsiaSat 7	25 Nov 2011	Proton-M / Briz-M	Baikonur, Site 200/39	Khrunichev	105.5° East	In Service	Replaced AsiaSat 3S at the orbital location of 105.5° East.
AsiaSat 8	5 Aug 2014	Falcon 9 v1.1	Cape Canaveral, SLC-40	SpaceX	105.5° East	In Service	AsiaSat satellite with multiple Ku beams.
AsiaSat 9	28 Sep 2017	Proton-M / Briz-M	Baikonur, Site 200/39	Khrunichev	122° East	In Service	Replaced AsiaSat 4 at 122° East.

Watch videos about AsiaSatExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “AsiaSat”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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