EMC’s President Hints at More Hosted Payload Deals

Emerging Markets Communications (EMC), which signed a strategic commercial agreement to use Arabsat’s new BADR-7 satellite earlier this year, could look to do further hosted payload deals in the near future, according to Blake McLane, the company’s new president.

    “The strategy aligns with what we want to accomplish from a risk portfolio perspective,” he said. “If we can get the favorable terms, which we did with the Arabsat deal, and get the capacity we need, then yes, we could do more. We have to be very careful in terms of where we are deploying capital assets.”

    The deal with Arabsat was key for EMC as it gives it access to much needed capacity and to the ability of  making further asset investments. “One of our strategies is to grow the business and to really have the economies of scale in terms of capacity. We want to make sure we have a clear working platform for our customers. So, we are trying to align ourselves strategically with customers for their long-term play. In order to do that, we are trying to take out as much volatility for our partners as possible. By gaining access to this capacity we are able to do this,” says McLane. “The Arabsat deal, as well as other investments we are making in additional assets will make sure we have the capability and the capacity so that we can provide the capability we need to customers.”

    One of the reasons why EMC needs extra capacity is the changing nature of its business. Traditionally, the company has been focused on government and NGO verticals but it now hopes to grow and make more of an impact in the enterprise sector. The company is seeing strong growth in Africa, as well as in verticals such as the banking sector and energy. EMC is seeking to align itself far more with the application community.

    “We want to take our value proposition up the value chain and begin to position our products so they are more aligned with specific oil field applications, backoffice applications,” McLane added. “We will be promoting connectivity as the enabler, but much more aligning ourselves with the application communities. So, we are doing more than just marketing ourselves as a connectivity play.”